Life, or Something Like it
by TheBrightestNight
Summary: It has begun. Luke's body is now hosting Kronos. But one person who believes in, and loves, him has vowed to save him. She made the wrong choice before, now it's time to fix it. Can she stop what has been set in motion? Or do the Fates have other plans?
1. One

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson**

**A/N:**** This is an alternative ending to both The Last Olympian and my other short story, Story of My Life, Luke/OC (a.k.a. Tori), undefined (it's not a story/short-story, and I don't believe in a two-shots/three-shots/etc.), and there will be some dialogue from TLO.**

**I'm not going to say, you **_**have**_** to go ready Story of My Life for it to make sense, because I hate shoving my stories down people's throats and it probably will make sense still (…probably). But, in my opinion, I do believe that it would be a good idea to read it.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

_A promise must never be broken. ~ Alexander Hamilton_

_**ἀ**__**νε**__**ῤῥ**__**ίφθω κύβος  
><strong>_—  
>Let the Die be Cast<p>

I missed New York City terribly. And after, almost, three years I was finally coming home. But it wasn't as sweet as I had wanted it to be. After everything that happened these past three years… I'd fallen into a void. Not even my city could help fill the gaping hole that just got bigger and bigger as the days past.

The radio volume suddenly increased, bringing me out of my thoughts. I was in a cab, heading toward Mrs. Alexander's place (she was my foster mom because my real mother left me out in the streets, crying, only months old).

_"…floods,"_ a newscaster was reporting. _"Five states declared disaster areas as the freak storm system sweeps east—"_

I leaned forward. "Hey, do you think you could turn it down a bit." I asked.

The cab driver gave me an odd, slightly annoyed, look through the rearview mirror. I threw him a twenty dollar bill. He held it up to the light to make sure it wasn't counterfeit. When he decided that it wasn't, he turned the radio down to a nice volume that I could easily ignore. I let out a breath and leaned back.

"Thank you." I muttered.

He grunted and waved a hand passively.

I knew what that announcer had been talking about. Typhon had escaped his prison in Mt. Saint Helens and was on his way here. To New York. To Mount Olympus. It probably wasn't the best idea to head to the place that was going to be a war zone in a couple of days, maybe less, but I was feeling awfully homesick. Besides, I'd been gone, like stated before, for just about three years. I wasn't about to run off again.

I had done some… bad things. When I'd gone off to find Luke, to stop all of this, he'd convinced me to join him. But things didn't exactly work out. After the day that Percy had revealed Luke's whole plan and what'd he done to camp he became more distant with me. I tried comforting him, tried talking to him but he pushed me away. Our whole relationship shattered afterwards.

It was so hard to see him being controlled by Kronos (I mean, not completely, not until just last year…) and I couldn't get to him anymore. I'd made the wrong decision and by then it was too late. No matter how hard I tried to convince him, he wouldn't listen. My pleas became so frequent he finally just labeled me prisoner and kept me in one of the rooms of the ship. I don't know why he didn't just feed me to one of the monsters. (I was hoping that it was because he still cared about me, still… loved me, but I couldn't be too sure.)

It was probably late January, early February (if I recall correctly), when everyone else was too busy with preparations to go in and scout the Labyrinth, I had managed to sneak out on the shores of one of the beaches down in San Francisco. That's when I started my long, grueling journey across the country and back to New York.

It was a lot harder than you think, because I didn't have a dime on me. I had my backpack full of clothes and my weapons: my sword, switchblade, and bow. That was it. I hitchhiked when I could, and sometimes I'd have to stay in a city for a couple of days to earn some money then I'd move on.

I know it would've been easier to just stay in one city until I could earn enough money for a train ride straight to New York, but I didn't want to be anywhere near California. I was actually afraid that Luke would send one of his monsters to find me, because if he didn't just kill me when he had the chance, then I was probably important in some way. I couldn't afford to stay in one city for too long.

Irrational, much? Probably.

But I didn't want to risk it.

However, in Colorado, I met another half-blood. She was older, like late twenties, early thirties. Her name was Alexis, and she was a daughter of Ares. She was about as tall as me and had short, spiky black hair with ruby red streaks. I was side-tracked then.

She was _good_. Like the best at fighting (which is really an acute word for all the skills she knew and had). She taught me hand-to-hand combat, how to fight someone with all kinds of weapons when I didn't have one, a few other unmentionables that involved sorts of… foul play during battle. She even had me learn ballet—of all things!—so that I'd become more flexible.

So, I stayed in Colorado for the rest of the year learning from her (and doing menial chores as payment), learning techniques from American (like parkour) and Asian (like pressure points on the body) cultures. I don't know where or when she, herself, had trained, but she was downright amazing. Now, I was too… well getting there anyway. She'd been training, almost, all her life.

When Typhon escaped his prison I decided it was time for me to head back to New York. One of the parting gifts she gave me was a specially made Swiss army knife. It had you're usual knifes (big and little), those microscopic scissors, etc., but it also held five poisonous blowdarts in a secret compartment. Not to worry though, it wasn't, like, monster poison, it was just poison that could knock you out for several hours. She also gave me a pair of converse that had a hollow part in the heel where I could hide my knife. It was pretty awesome.

Lastly, I got some cash so I could get back to New York. That I was awfully grateful for. Now we've, sort of, come full circle.

"Miss?" the cab asked breaking me out of my reverie.

I blinked and looked at him.

"We're here." he said slowly like he was just realizing I wasn't all there. I looked out the window and sure enough I saw Mrs. Alexander's apartment.

"Oh, okay." I murmured taking out a hundred. I threw it at him, grabbed my backpack and started to exit. "Keep the change."

When I got to my foster mother's door I couldn't get myself to knock. I wasn't sure how she would respond to my sudden appearance. I had called her telling her I was on some overseas study for school, but that was, the lucky number, three, years ago. I hadn't talked to her since because of my prisoner state.

What if she hated me now? I practically abandoned her without warning and without a goodbye. I wouldn't blame her if she did hate me after what I'd done to her.

But I wanted to so badly to have some sort of a home for at least a day or two.

Biting my lip, I lifted my hand to knock, but lost my nerve and lowered it again. I started to walk away when I thought that this was ridiculous! _I_ was being ridiculous! It wasn't that hard to just reach up and knock twice. I'd never know if she really did hate me if I didn't.

Taking a deep breath, my heart pounding painfully against my ribcage, I went back to her door. I lifted my hand again, but before I could knock the door opened to reveal my foster mom.

Even after three years she didn't look any older than that last time I'd seen her. Her black hair was super short now, though; down to her shoulders instead of the middle of her back. I was probably several inches taller than her, too.

She gasped when she saw me and before I could say anything she threw her arms around me in a powerful hug.

"Oh, Tori! Tori! I missed you so much!" she cried. "I can't believe you're back. When I didn't hear from you, I just assumed…" She pulled back trailing off to look at me. She grinned widely, her eyes shining. "Oh, you look gorgeous. And your hair, it's so much longer now." she commented, bringing the braid I'd put it in over my shoulder. My champagne-blond hair had grown out down to my waist now and it was a lot easier to have it in a braid where I wouldn't have hair flying all over the place in case I got into a fight with a monster.

I gave her a small smile. "Thanks. You look great, too." I mumbled. "I missed you so much. I'm so sorry—"

Mrs. Alexander shook her head. "You don't need to apologize. I'm glad to see you back."

My eyes flickered inside the apartment and I realized that there was a big, black suitcase behind her.

"Going somewhere?" I asked too tired to hide my disappointment.

"Oh, sweetie," She smiled sadly. "My sister has fallen very ill and needs me to come take care of her for the time being. I'm terribly sorry. But there's food in the fridge, and you still have a bedroom." She stroked my hair comfortingly.

Tears had started to form in my eyes but I bit my tongue hard and held them back. I didn't know what to say so I pulled her into another bone-crushing hug.

"Give your sister my best wishes. I hope she gets better." I whispered pulling back.

"I will." Her eyes were watery as well. I stepped back so she could step out. "I love you, so much. I always have. Don't you forget that." she told me.

I nodded afraid if I spoke I'd break out into tears. "I… love you, too." I quickly choked out. She kissed my forehead and then headed down. When I heard the noise of the busy New York streets grow louder for a second and then become muffled, I slowly trudged into the apartment.

The door closed and I slid down to the floor before breaking out into tears.

Home, sweet home.

* * *

><p>I was in a cave.<p>

It was dim and dank. I could hear water dripping from the stalactites and into shallow pools all around. I couldn't see anything around me except for the cave walls stretching far above my head. As far as I could tell I was totally alone.

I took a few, cautious, steps forward.

"Hello?" I asked, my voice echoing off the walls. Nothing. "Um… hello?" I started to walk forward, chills rushing down my spine, wave after wave. A drop of icy cold water hit my head. Then more and more. It didn't stop. It actually started to rain inside this cavern.

I blinked the water out of my eyes, and realized that every time I blinked I'd see an image. I stopped walking, even though I was freezing—shivering in fact—the water was so arctic.

If I closed my eyes long enough, I could see them. The three Fates, with a string of yarn. They were sitting in the exact cave I was in. Two arches were behind them, with steps that led into a large, wide opening, and far off I could see the exit to a beach of some sort.

Two of them were sitting close together on my left side, the third sitting on the opposite side of the steps. She was holding a long, wooden pole with a wad of yarn wrapped around the top and a single string stretching out, across to the farthest one on my right, who also had a wad of yarn spindled and hanging like a pendulum in one of her hands. The last one was sitting with her legs crossed, her chin in her hand. I was guessing she cut the string.

They all wore black, Greek chitons with hoods. But only the one who had her legs crossed had hers up. They all were staring blankly, off into space. They all had depressing, sullen looks on their faces. The two with their hoods down, who held the yarn, had silver-gray hair that was pulled back into a bun, from what I could tell.

Movement caught my attention and my eyes flickered down. I felt absolutely paralyzed as the middle one pulled out long-bladed scissors. Bile rose in my throat and my eyes flickered up again. All three of them were now staring right at me. Their gazes boring into mine. My heart stuttered as I realized this was _my_ string. _My_ lifeline.

I wanted to shake my head, or say no as the third took the string into her free hand and brought it in between the blade of her shears. I watched, helplessly, as they closed over the thin piece of yarn.

"No!" I cried shooting up in my bed as the _snip_ of the scissors reverberated inside my skull. I was covered in a cold sweat from head to toe, and my heart was hammering against my chest. Well, I wasn't dead… but that remained to be seen. I was _sure_ that they had just cut my string. That meant I was doomed to die.

I shook my head, tears filling my eyes. "No." I moaned. I didn't want to die. At least, not yet. I wanted to save Luke. I wasn't going to leave this earth until he was _him_ once again. That was my mission. I couldn't _afford_ to die yet!

I took a shaky breath, trying to regroup. If I wasn't dead yet, maybe I'd still get my chance. Just maybe…. I had to keep fighting until my last breaths. I wasn't going to give up just because I knew my fate.

I glanced over at the clock, mid-afternoon. I had lied down to take a nap, but after that vision I felt more tired than ever, now.

As if that wasn't enough, just then, everything came crashing down on me.

I had been very careful to avoid TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, anything that reported what was going on with the Typhon "storm", and the coming war for the three days I'd been back in New York. (Actually, scratch that, the war was already here; it just hadn't made its way to Olympus yet.) I was trying to make my homecoming a little more enjoyable without having to worry about impending doom.

Anyway, like I was saying it all came down, like the sky had just slammed onto my shoulders (not that I knew what that felt like, and didn't think I wanted to). It was just this terrible feeling of dread and foreboding smothering me.

Everything seemed normal enough. I mean the usual hustle and bustle of the New York streets continued on. The sun shone, not as bright as usual though. But that feeling didn't fade or go away, it actually increased as I sat there in my bed, trying to figure out what was wrong (besides the obvious).

It had me feeling so fatigued I shook, but that could've been that ominous dream too. My heart thudded in my throat uncomfortably. My breath was shaky and jagged.

Gods, I was losing it.

I stumbled out of bed and into the bathroom. Something big and terrible was going to happen today (hopefully _not_ my death) and I _needed_ to get to Manhattan as soon as possible. First, the necessity, though, of taking a shower, because when you don't take a shower for days, sometimes, weeks at a time you tend to start loving them.

As soon as I was dressed I braided my hair and laced two chopsticks through it (one of them was disguised as a chopstick, when it was actually a pipe to shoot the blowdarts), packed two pairs of clean clothes (just in case) and my sword into my backpack, attached my switchblade to my ankle where it could be hidden behind my jeans, and slipped on my converse, the Swiss army knife already in its compartment. I grabbed what was left of my money wad that Alexis had given me and rushed out the door.

The feeling lessened after I hailed a taxi and told him to go to the Empire State Building. I was still feeling on edge, biting my lip, and bouncing my leg impatiently. Every so often I'd look at my watch, but a minute (sometimes not even that) would have only passed. The ride felt like it was taking forever! I didn't know if it was due to the fact that something terrible was going to happen or because traffic was heavier than usual at this time of day, but it majorly sucked!

And when I did finally get there, guess what I saw? Just guess….

It was a whole group of half-bloods from camp, along with Chiron and Argus. I had been so preoccupied with my own thoughts, looking down at the floor of the car; I hadn't noticed the three, large white vans pulled up at the curb right in front of the Empire State building.

What were they even doing here? I'd never seen such a big group of them, all together, like that before. Although I did notice that none of the kids from the Ares cabin was there, but other than this it seemed that the rest of the campers were all here.

"Stop!" I blurted out to the driver, panicking. I couldn't imagine what they'd do if they saw me, and I wasn't about to find out. I'm sure they hated me for what I'd done for two summers in a row (helping/spying for Luke and all that), and probably hated me more so, now because I'd joined Luke's army. If I showed up I had a feeling that it'd be mutilate now, ask questions later. I wouldn't have time to explain that I was no longer on his side. Though, I still loved him dearly….

The driver slammed on the breaks, someone honking angrily behind him, and glared at me through the rearview mirror. I smiled apologetically.

"Here's fine." I said, throwing him a fifty before sneaking out and onto the sidewalk. I clenched my hand around the strap of my bag, but let my body look nonchalant, and headed in the opposite direction of the big group, conversing and talking. I turned the corner and relaxed.

I stepped out of the foot traffic off to the side, and leaned against the wall, head down. What was I doing? Going into something like this totally blind! It was just those horrible emotions rushing through me right now, like the whole world was going to end right here and now.

I shook myself, feeling the need to move more. I stepped back onto the sidewalk and headed for a coffee shop that I knew of two blocks away on 35th and 7th. I wanted to be close, but I wanted to be far enough away to take that paranoia off.

I walked in just as the sun started setting, turning the city a beautiful shade of orange. I was instantly hit with the scent of chocolate mochas and the sound of blenders making frappuccinos. I relaxed slightly and got in line to get something for myself. To calm my nerves.

I ordered a hot chocolate on a whim because I wanted to pretend I was ten-years-old again; when I didn't know I was a half-blood, when everything was okay, when I didn't have so much responsibility or baggage or worry weighing my shoulders down. I sat down at one of their small, two-person tables staring blankly at my cup and the mountain of whipped cream on top with a swirl of hot fudge.

I slowly lifted my cup to my lips and took a sip. Warmth flooded into my mouth, down my throat, and settled in my stomach bringing me back to when I _was_ ten. Sliding my eyes closed I tried to imagine Mrs. Alexander's bubbly voice chattering away about historical facts or art or a good book she'd read recently. And, for a moment, at least, I _did_ feel ten again. I did feel small and innocent.

I could almost feel Mrs. Alexander's hand gently touch mine.

"Are you okay?" she would ask.

My eyes opened and I sighed when I didn't see her hand over mine. That's when I realized just how silent it was. This wasn't just silent, it was dead silent. There was no noise at all. All I could hear was the ringing in my ears and my shallow breathing.

I looked around confused. No one was moving. They were all slumped in their seats. The people who'd been standing in line or just standing waiting for their drinks were curled up on the floor, like they'd become tired and decided to take a nap in the middle of the store. I slid from my chair, taking my sword out of my backpack and strapping it to my waist, before throwing my bag over my shoulder.

I snuck a peek behind the counters. The workers were also, sleeping on the floor. None of them were dead, their chests were moving, but… that didn't just happen. I looked up and outside. It was too dark, and the lights inside were reflecting back my confounded facial expression, like a mirror. My jade-green eyes were as wide as a doe's caught in headlights.

I hastily stepped outside thinking my ears would be flooded with sound of horns honking and angry drivers screaming, the sidewalks teeming with life and lights. But that was a naïve thought. Outside looked the same as the inside of the coffee shop. My throat swelled up looking at all the sleeping people. The cars sat, idle, on the street, their drivers slumped over the wheel or off to the side. Sleeping pedestrians littered the streets and doorways. It was some kind of magic, probably by one of the Titans.

The _entire_ city of Manhattan had been hushed.

* * *

><p>I wandered the streets, as sounds of battle reverberated throughout the silent city streets. Because of all the buildings the sound waves bounced back and forth, making it sound like there were assaults coming from all directions. It was a never ending onslaught of screams, cries, bronze-against-bronze. I wanted to run away from it all, it was becoming too much. But if I was correct I wouldn't be able to escape without meeting half-bloods.<p>

I would've joined the fight, I _really_ would, but there were two problems: (1) if I went to fight without proper armor, I'd surely die quickly _and_ painfully, and (2) both sides would be against me. I was a half-blood, so the monsters would, inevitably, take advantage of my un-armored state and barrage me. Then again, if I showed up, everyone knew of my betrayal at camp. They'd automatically think—especially being in the middle of a war—I was still with the Titans and they'd probably aim to kill me as well.

It wasn't look too good either way.

So, I decided it would be best if I just stayed back. I still hadn't figured out just how I was going to get Luke back, but I was working on it. You couldn't blame me. Changing a titan lord back into someone you used to have a relationship with was a lot harder than it sounded. I was _not_ going to give up hope though. I just wasn't. I _couldn't_.

Luke was like my last, and only, lifeline. If he was gone, if I couldn't save him… I don't know what I'd do.

I would've at least tried to sleep, but with all the noise and the knowing that all the people I knew were in a war didn't put me in the sleeping mood. So, tuning out the din as best I could, I walked the streets of Manhattan, making sure to stay well away from the Empire State Building and any of the bridges/tunnels that led off the island. As I walked I'd come across a cell phone that was still ringing, and sometimes I _think_ I saw huge automatons that looked like the statues all over Manhattan, but I was delirious, so I wasn't so sure….

It was probably about three or four-ish when I finally couldn't walk anymore, my feet felt like they'd been dipped in cement blocks. So I found a bus bench, used my backpack as a pillow and lied down. I was _so_ exhausted that as soon as my eyes closed I was out. I woke up two hours later—thankfully no scary dreams that involved the Fates haunted me—with the sun reflecting on one of the windows on a skyscraper and into my eyes.

I groaned and sat up blinking sleep out of my eyes. The sounds from last night had died, but I still felt as if I could hear them. I stretched; my neck sore from sleeping on a bench. I threw my backpack over my shoulder and started looking for a store that had a drinking fountain. Regrettably I didn't bring a water bottle, so I had to get my fill there.

I had probably taken, I don't know, ten steps away from the building when a voice said, "Well, look what the cat dragged in." My hands balled into fists and I cursed silently. I'd know that voice anywhere.

I snorted. "You would know how that feels, wouldn't you?" I asked.

I felt a sharp poke in my back, right between my shoulder blades. "No sudden movements." he ordered his voice tight with vexation.

I turned my head to look at him over my shoulder, my lips turning up into a wry smile. "Or you'll what? Stab me?" I asked. He dug his sword deeper into my back and I clenched my teeth.

"Turn." he barked, avoiding my question. I turned to look at him with an "I could care less" look. "Nice to see you again, Victoria." he said smiling sarcastically. I hated it when he used my full name. It's not like I didn't like my full name, I just liked Tori better.

I mimicked his expression. "That's Tori, to you, Daniel." He liked to go by Dan.

Figures; sometimes I wondered how we were ever fraternal twins. I guess now I knew _something_ we had in common. (Well, I suppose, besides looking almost exactly alike.)

He kept his sword under my chin, just skimming my neck.

I pushed it away. "Put the sword down before someone gets hurt." I said. He brought it back, closer this time. I wasn't too worried, he was much better with a bow.

"Still an orphan, I see." he commented lightly. I suppressed the impulse to punch him. Instead, I shoved his sword away again, and before Dan could bring it back, I performed a roundhouse kick, hitting his wrist with my heel. His sword flew out of his hand, not ready for the blow, and I took advantage of his weaponless state and quickly executed a high sidekick to his head.

He stumbled back, slightly disoriented. I unsheathed my sword and held it to the hollow of his throat. His jaw was working, his eyes shooting daggers.

"You shouldn't have said that." I advised in a low voice.

"What; is someone still bitter about the fact that Apollo won't claim you?" he sneered.

I gripped the hilt of my sword tighter. "Well, he obviously has terrible taste in which children he claims. I mean, look at you." I retorted as lightly as I could.

Dan rolled his eyes. "Oh, get over yourself, Victoria."

He was taking this too easily, like there wasn't a sword pointed at his throat. I turned slightly to look behind me just as an arrow came flying toward me and lodged itself into my right shoulder.

**.happiness.**

**~ See you at Camp Half-Blood!**


	2. Two

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson**

_**ὕ**__**στερον πρότερον  
><strong>_—  
>The Latter One First<p>

A string of profanities spewed from my mouth as soon as I registered the pain. I dropped my sword and reached my left arm behind my back to break off the tail end. Then I brought my hand forward and swiftly yanked the rest of the arrow out, my cuss words rising in volume for a moment. I hotly threw the broken arrow to the side and covered my wound.

Unfortunately, that had given Dan and his buddies time to confiscate my backpack and sword.

"I seem to recall you carrying a switchblade, Victoria." Dan said casually sheathing his own sword. I thanked my lucky stars that I had decided to not wear a jacket today, forcing myself to put my switchblade on my ankle.

"Left it at my place." I muttered trying to sound begrudging, which wasn't too hard right then. Dan studied me carefully with narrowed eyes.

"Maybe we should search her." someone behind me suggested. I turned to face him and snorted.

"Oh, you'd like that wouldn't you?" I asked sardonically. His lip curled.

"Now's not the time for this," a familiar voice said appearing into my line of vision with my backpack slung over her shoulder.

I smiled. "Oh, Brooke, it's nice to see you again." She didn't respond. "Your arrow, I presume." I continued. She still ignored me. Fine, be that way, I thought.

Brooke stared sternly at Dan. "We should be getting back to the Plaza now."

"Oh, well, if you have somewhere you need to be, then I should be going, too." I told the three of them, slowly backing into the street, making sure I wasn't going to trip over anything behind me.

"Not so fast." Dan said, grabbing my right arm, jerking me back between them. "You're coming with us."

I groaned. "Do I have to?" I whined. "You could just give me my stuff back and we could leave our separate ways, like nothing ever happened. You won't ever have to see, or deal, with me again." I coaxed.

Dan just snorted and rolled his eyes before leading the way to the Plaza, me in tow. The other two followed behind a few steps. The trip only took a few minutes, which was shocking to me, because I hadn't realized I'd been so close to their "base camp." Not exactly the kind I'd pick, seeing as it wasn't very conspicuous, but when we got into the elevator and we started for the penthouse suites, I couldn't blame them.

All around there were demigods from camp that I recognized and then girls I didn't quite recognize, whose ages ranged from about 10 to 15 (at the oldest). I assumed they were Hunters of Artemis. Everyone was crashed out on sofas, chairs, beds. Some were ripping the draperies to bandage wounds; some were cleaning up in the bathroom; some raiding the minibars.

Dan went up to one of the half-bloods—Jake, I think his name was—and started talking, shooting glances in my direction. I didn't feel like tuning into their conversation and instead admired the penthouse suites. I wished I was rich enough to even afford a one night stay here. And it didn't have to be the penthouse, any suite here would suffice. I never really understand why they made rooms like this. You could live in this if you wanted. It had everything and then some.

Dan walked back up to me.

"What's the verdict?" I asked.

"Percy's occupied at the moment." he muttered.

My eyebrows rose in interest. "Oh, Percy is leading this regime, huh? Impressive." I said looking around. I started toward one of the balconies but Dan caught my arm.

"Just where do you think you're going?" he asked sounding incredulous that after all I'd done, I'd have the guts to just walk away from him.

I rolled my eyes. "Lay off. I just wanted some fresh air." I told him gesturing to the balcony I'd set my sights on. "You liberated my weapons. I'm not a threat. Don't be such a snot." I jerked my arm out of his grasp and went outside. I vaguely registered talking coming from somewhere, but the conversation held no interest of mine.

I took my left hand off my shoulder and examined my wound. It didn't look too bad. Hurt like Hades, but I'd live. Besides, this shoulder had already been damaged by an _empousa_ a couple years back. She'd shredded the back of my shoulder. _That_ was a hundred times more painful than what I was feeling now.

After I was done looking at my wound I looked out across Central Park. The sun had just risen illuminating it with its golden rays. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. The air was cool this morning with a breeze that tousled the stray hair that I could never keep in my braid, no matter how hard I tried. I enjoyed the crisp air; it soothed my nerves and dulled the pain in my shoulder.

I found myself enjoying the quiet, actually. It was so nice not to hear all the sounds of cars and yelling. It gave me a sense of peace. Sadly, this feeling didn't last long. I heard Luke's name and my attention snapped to the conversation. Now that I was actually paying attention I recognized Percy and Annabeth's voice. She had been the one to bring up Luke.

"…came to see me in San Francisco." she said weakly. If it hadn't been so dead silent I might not have been able to hear her.

"In person?" Percy's voice was tight, but it wasn't out of anger, it sounded like. "He came to your house?"

"This was before we went into the Labyrinth, before…" Annabeth's voice broke. My chest tightened at her words, my breath coming out in small, quiet gasps. "He came under a flag of truce. He said he only wanted five minutes to talk. He look scared, Percy. He told me Kronos was going to use him to take over the world." My hands closed into fists. I remember yelling this to him on the _Princess Andromeda_, but he didn't believe me. "He said he wanted to run away, like the old days. He wanted me to come with him."

"But you didn't trust him." said Percy in a low voice.

"Of course not," Annabeth continued. "I thought it was a trick. Plus… well, a lot of things had changed since the old days. I told Luke there was no way. He got mad. He said… he said I might as well fight him right there, because it was the last chance I'd get." Her voice rose slightly.

"It's okay," Percy said soothingly. "Try to get some rest."

"You don't understand, Percy." Annabeth continued in an almost desperate-sounding whisper. "Hermes was right. Maybe if I'd gone with him, I could've changed his mind. Or-or I had a knife. Luke was unarmed. I could've—"

"Killed him?" Percy finished. "You know that wouldn't have been right."

There was a pause. "Luke said Kronos would use him _like a stepping stone_. Those were his exact words. Kronos—" Blinking, I tuned out.

Up until then I'd been totally paralyzed. Now, hearing what Annabeth had said, a dull ache in my chest broke me out of my trance. My jaw clenched, I dug my nails into my palms and bent over, resting my arms on the railing to keep me up. The burning in my chest became worse. I squeezed my eyes shut refusing to let any tears escape.

_This was before we went into the Labyrinth._ Annabeth had said. If only I had still been on the ship! I couldn't even begin to imagine how scared Luke was. If _only_ I had been there. He could've come to me. I would've gone anywhere with him. I could've saved him, like I had promised myself all these years….

My heart lurched painfully as the thought that Luke probably did come looking for me, popped into my head. When he couldn't find me he went to Annabeth. They'd been through a lot together. They had a strong connection. But she rejected him.

"Victoria," Dan's voice came from behind. I pulled myself out of my depression, straightened up, and turned to look at him.

"What?" I snapped, cocking my head slightly to the side.

"You're wanted in the living room." he said reaching out to grab my arm. I let him just because I hadn't managed to pull myself out of my miseries all the way. My mind was still reeling. I was scolding myself. _You could've saved him! You could've saved him!_

We walked into the living room where I saw Percy, Grover, Thalia and Jake were conversing. Percy looked… different. I couldn't pinpoint what, or why, but something about him was just… off.

As we got closer I realized they were talking about the spy in camp. I sighed heavily, grabbing their attention. They all looked up with varying degrees of glares. Percy's was probably the hardest, most murderous, one. But I was used to those by now. I'd built up a barrier to all outside emotions, comments, looks, etc.

"You rang?" I asked, crossing my arms, smiling slightly.

"She used to be the spy, right?" Dan asked. "Maybe she knows who the spy is now."

"Well would you look at that!" I exclaimed turning to look at him. "The boy thinks!" He rolled his eyes and one of his hands came up to slap my hurt shoulder. It wasn't totally hard, but it wasn't light either. My left hand flew up to grab my shoulder. "Ow! That hurt!"

"It's supposed to." he retorted.

My hand fisted. "You know what else hurts?" I asked shaking my fist. "A broken nose."

Dan snorted. "Like you really could."

"Is that an invitation?" I asked taking a step toward him, pulling my arm back.

"Okay, guys, break it up." Percy intervened, pushing us apart.

I heard Dan grumble, "She started it."

"Oh, grow up and act your own age." I told him.

He took a step toward me, but Percy stopped him. "Guys." he warned again. Then he turned toward me. "How did you get here?"

"I live here." I stated.

Annoyance flashed in Percy's eyes. "Not in Manhattan."

"I came a couple hours before the war started." I explained. I thought he was going to ask me why. Instead he turned toward Dan.

"When did you find her?" he asked.

"This morning. She was about two blocks away from here." Dan reported.

Percy turned back to me. "What were you doing?" he questioned.

"Getting a drink of water." It was the truth, but it was apparent he didn't believe me.

He sighed and turned back toward the other half-bloods that had gathered. "I don't have the time, or the patience, to deal with this right now. We can't obsess about this spy. You guys were awesome last night. I couldn't ask for a braver army. Let's set up rotation for the watches. Rest up while you can. We've got a long night ahead of us."

As the demigods dispersed, Jake pointed at me and asked, "What about… her?"

Percy glanced at me. "I suppose we should have someone watch her." he decided. "And," he paused, "we should, probably, give her some ambrosia—" As soon as that word was out of his mouth Thalia, Grover, Jake, and Dan started objecting.

"Why should we waste our supplies on some low-life like her?" Thalia asked angrily over the others, who quieted down as soon as she finished. Low-life, that was new.

"Calm down," I said bravely. "It's not a horrible, life-threatening wound. I won't need that much."

"Would you like me to make it life-threatening? 'Cause I can." Thalia jeered reaching up to grip her bow.

Percy took a deep breath. "As much as I _hate_ to admit it, she's right." he muttered, stressing the word, hate. "Her wound isn't bad. She won't need more than a small portion." He looked at Dan. "Dan—?"

"I've got it." my brother said putting a hand on my shoulder. I made a face and shook it off. I turned and looked around the living room. I had a feeling that I wouldn't be finding a bedroom up here with all these other half-bloods. And I didn't exactly want to share, so I might as well just crash here.

There was a loveseat on the other side of the room, so I went over to that and plopped down, the wariness catching up to me. Great. Now I was a prisoner here too. Was it ever going to end? I was starting to get really tired of this routine.

"I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." Dan warned.

I rolled my eyes. "It's not like I really have anywhere _to_ go." I replied. He gave me a hard stare for a moment before walking off.

I lied down on the loveseat, taking up the whole space and more; my legs were hanging over one of the armrests. I closed my eyes, breathing deeply and was on the brink of sleep when something landed on my stomach.

I lifted my head to see a baggie of ambrosia.

"Thank you." I told Dan before opening the bag and dumping the remaining ambrosia into my mouth. It melted and warmed my throat as it slid down. The warmth spread and the pain in my shoulder faded. I sat up to inspect my shoulder. The wound was gone, but when I rolled it, it was really sore. At least it was healed, for the most part. It's not like it'd never been this sore before.

I stretched back out, laced my fingers and rested my hands on my stomach, and closed my eyes.

"You could sleep, after all that?" Dan asked unbelievingly.

I waved my hand flippantly. "Quiet."

* * *

><p>Why did <em>I<em> have to have demigod dreams? I wasn't a hero. I had betrayed my family—if you could call it that—to join the Titans. It just wasn't fair.

I was standing on one of the balconies at the Plaza. It was night, the stars were twinkling in the midnight blue sky, as bright as ever, and the moon shone down, bathing Central Park in silver. A crisp night breeze blew my loose hair back. There were no sounds of battle, just the sound of the leaves rustling in the trees as the breeze blew through the boughs.

I shivered.

"No way out," a familiar voice murmured in my ear, so close I could feel his warm breath on my neck. It was absolutely heart-wrenching hearing his voice after so long.

I spun around, my ice water running through my veins. "Luke?" I asked in an uncertain whisper. But no one was on the balcony with me. Inside the hotel was pitch black. I hesitantly turned back to look out over at the park again.

"But down." Kronos's voice finished. My spine went rigid as below me, the balcony started to crumble. Before I could even scream, "No" I was plummeting to the concrete sidewalk, twenty stories below. A shriek of pure terror broke through my lips. When the ground came within feet of me I closed my eyes, bracing for impact.

I jerked awake on the loveseat with a choked gasp. I coughed a little before swallowing hard. I blinked and looked around, trying to gather my bearings. Blood roared in my ears. I slowly sat up, breathing deeply, trying to get the black-and-gray spots to disappear from my vision.

"Did someone have a bad dream?" a male voice taunted. I looked over to my right to see Conner Stoll.

"Oh, shut up." I growled glaring at him. He gave me a contempt look before rolling his eyes and turning back around.

"This is so unfair." another voice mumbled. It was Travis. He was standing opposite of his brother. "Why do _we_ have to guard you?"

"Yeah, we have much better things we could be doing right now. Like Dylan's Candy Bar…" Conner added, grinning at the thought of all you can steal candy.

I rolled my eyes. Even in the middle of a war all they could think about was raiding stores. Then again, I kind of admired that about them, they weren't _as_ depressed as everyone else.

These feelings faded quickly, though, when I thought back to the dream I just had. I was going stir-crazy. That was probably it. But… on the other hand, you didn't have seemingly random dreams about Kronos for no reason. Then what was it supposed to mean, if anything? I didn't really see any point to it at all, except for the fact that it made me miss Luke.

A lot.

I sighed and looked out the windows. The sun was out and I guessed that it was mid or late afternoon. What I wouldn't do to get out of this place! That gave me an idea. Who said I _had_ to stay here? I swear, I'd die before I got out of here! So, why not just make a break for it? You never know until you try, right? I only had two guards; I didn't think it was going to be too difficult.

As my mind raced, I listened to see if anyone was up. It didn't _sound_ like it. All was relatively quiet. I'm sure that there were still people up, but not many. A lot were probably resting up from the battles last night. I glanced at the Stoll brothers who were now chatting away about all the goods they could be out getting right now.

Making sure that the living room was empty and that they were paying no attention to me, I lifted my right foot up and rested it on my knee. Glancing up at both of them once in a while, I slipped open the cover to the compartment and removed my Swiss army knife. I then opened the small compartment in that and took out one of the poison darts. It was a small thing, about the size and shape of a thumbtack (without the little plastic grip) and a cast-iron color. I quickly slipped my knife back into my compartment and lowered my foot.

Keeping my eye on the two, I pulled out the chopstick that I used to shoot the dart. I slipped the dart inside and was about to shoot when I noticed that they were both wearing the type of Greek helmet that protected the back of their necks. I'd have to get one of them to turn their heads. Even then, I'd only have a very thin margin of error. I had to hit the target the first time or I'd be in big trouble.

I took a deep breath, made sure that no one was coming in and then whistled softly to get their attention.

Both of them turned their heads, but Conner's was at a perfect angle. I quickly lifted the chopstick up to my lips and blew.

"What—?" he started, but, thank the gods, the dart hit the exposed part of his neck and the poison did its work quick. His eyes rolled back and his knees buckled. Travis lunged forward to catch his brother. I took this time to shove the chopstick back in my braid and pull out my switchblade. Travis stood up and I stepped in close to him, holding the tip of the blade to his neck.

"Don't move, don't make a sound." I ordered quietly. He glared at me, his chest heaving, his hands clenching and unclenching into fists.

"What did you do to my brother?" he spat through gritted teeth.

"He'll be fine." I said quickly. "Now, I want you to take off your helmet." I instructed. "Do it, now." I said putting a little more force behind my words, and pressing the blade deeper into his neck.

Slowly, Travis reached up and removed his helmet. As soon as it was off, I withdrew my blade, brought my fist back and hit the side of Travis's head, more specifically his temple. He collapsed. I made sure that they were both breathing and both completely unconscious.

Then, I went to look for my sword. No way was I going out without it.

My search was super annoying. I had to look through, what felt like, every room in the whole penthouse. Thankfully people were resting up and I didn't come into contact with a lot of other half-bloods or Hunters. When I did, I made up some excuse and quickly darted out of the room. There were some close calls where I'd accidentally knock over a decorative vase, or a vase full of flowers, but I caught them just in time.

It was resting on my backpack at the edge of a bed. It was actually much easier to slip in, grab my sword, and slip out again than I expected. But I was glad. Unfortunately, it had taken me so long to find my sword; I only had little time before Travis and Conner would wake up again and probably even less time before someone found them and woke them up. I'm kind of surprised that someone _hadn't_ found him yet….

I swiftly and silently made my way to the "front doors" of the suite, cracked open one of them and peeked out. There were two guards on either side of the French doors, one from Apollo and one from Athena. I quietly closed the door again and got one of my darts out (this time shoving my Swiss army knife into my pocket for easier, quicker access). I opened the door again, aimed and blew. She collapsed. The other guard ran up and knelt down next to her. I slipped out and before he could do anything, I slammed the butt of my sword where the temple should be (because he was wearing a helmet) with as much force as possible.

Once again I made sure they were both completely out and then B-lined it to the stairwell. The elevator would've been much faster, I know, but if Percy assigned any guards down in the lobby, I'd be done for. I wasn't going to risk it.

I grabbed the railings on either side and catapulted myself forward and down to the next landing. I did this until my feet hit the ground floor. I tried the door to the alleyway but it wouldn't budge. I kicked it, still nothing.

Growling I turned toward the other door that led to the lobby and looked out. Sure enough, there were also two guards down here, but they were Hunters and they had one of their white timber wolves with them.

It was going to be a little easier than upstairs because I didn't have to worry about half-bloods and Hunters waking up if we made noise. On the flip side, they were Hunters, who didn't like half-bloods very much, period.

They were skilled, I'll admit it. And they did scare me just a little.

The fact that I was also a daughter of Apollo didn't exactly help the situation. Apollo may have not claimed me, but I had a feeling they'd know.

I really didn't want to, but I had no choice but to use another one of my poison darts. This was going to be harder. They were farther away and almost constantly moving, only pausing every now and again, listening for any kind of suspicious noises. The good thing was, there was a time when they'd split up. All three of them. One hunter would go one way, the other another way, and the wolf yet another different way. But for only a couple seconds. So I had to be accurate and fast.

I got the dart ready and opened the door a sliver. I waited until they all split up, aimed the chopstick as best I could and blew as hard as I could. I'd never blown a dart this far, so I was really crossing my fingers and holding my breath as I waited.

Luck must've been on my side today, because she let out a small yelp and instinctively reached for her shoulder (where the dart must've hit). Then, just like that, she dropped.

As soon as she hit the floor, I pushed the door wider and _sprinted_, pushing myself as hard as my body would go, and lunged over the lobby desk just before the other Hunter came back into the room. I heard her run over to her fallen comrade.

"Who's there?" she barked, no doubt readying her bow. "I know you're here. Show yourself, you coward!" Her voice full of pure hatred. I couldn't blame her though, I probably would be too, if I were in her situation.

I needed to create a distraction. I didn't want to use another one of my darts and I didn't want to go up against her either. I'd lose, she was ready with her bow, and I know I wouldn't be able to take her out before she'd kill me.

Looking around I looked for something I could throw. All I really saw were Plaza pens; they'd just have to do. I grabbed one lying on the counter, and lifted my head just enough so I could see where she was. Bile rose in my throat when I saw her though. She was no older than fourteen. It just felt wrong to hurt someone so young, I didn't know if I'd be _able_ to knock her out.

_You have to get out of here!_ A cold voice blew through my head. Right. I did have to get out of here, and it wasn't like I was going to kill her. I'd already pushed the snowball down the slope, I had to follow through or I'd be finished before it started.

The huntress turned around, her back facing me and I quickly stood and threw the pen—like a normal dart for a dart board—across the room, and ducked behind the desk again. I heard her soft, agile footsteps run over to where I'd thrown the pen. I peeked over and saw her disappear around a corner. I hopped over the desk and landed delicately on the balls of my feet.

I followed where she'd gone quietly. I turned the corner she had and almost crashed into her. Before I could change my mind I put her into a sleeper hold. Her nails raked my arm before the effects took place. I laid her gently on the floor. I felt horrible, I did; I'm not one of those heartless, sadistic people. But I was going to go crazy if I stayed up there any longer. (Sure, I'd only been here for an hour or two, but I'd been a prisoner for a whole year. I was _not_ ready to be a prisoner again.)

Knowing I only had a few minutes to get out I headed toward the doors, only to come face-to-face with the wolf. The wolf I totally forgot about.

Its hackles were raised, it's lips pulled back in a menacing snarl, revealing ivory teeth as sharp as razor blades. A slow, low growl rose from deep within its chest. My heart skipped a beat before going double time. Its black eyes glared at me full of malevolence.

I took a step forward and it barked, jaws snapping. Behind me, the huntress was already moaning. I wasn't going to hurt this wolf either, so I didn't pull any of my weapons. I'd have to put it out though, so I had to get one of my darts again. I started to pull my Swiss army knife out of my pocket, but the wolf, snarling, leaped toward me. I quickly ducked underneath it, and turned over on my back just as the wolf landed and spun around.

It was just nonstop growling, snarling, like it was continually cussing at me. What's, kind of funny, is that it probably was cussing at me.

I hastily readied another dart, but before I could gather my bearings and stand up, the wolf jumped toward me. Its big paws landing squarely on my shoulders, knocking the breath out of me, and snapping my head back. I saw stars for a moment. But the haze quickly cleared when I felt the wolf's needle-pointed teeth skim my neck.

**Hope you enjoyed!**

**.happiness.**

**~ See you at Camp Half-Blood**


	3. Three

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson**

_**μυστήριον τ**__**ῆ**__**ς πίστεως  
><strong>_—  
>Mystery of Faith<p>

My heart lurched in my chest, and, in a panic, I lifted the chopstick to my lips and blew practically blind.

The wolf yelped softly before all its weight crashed down on me, my neck still in its jaws. I shoved the chopstick into my braid and pushed the wolf off me. My hands were shaking profusely, and I felt breathless and dizzy. I rubbed my neck, not able to get the feeling of the wolf's teeth about to rip it to shreds out of my mind. Then I heard more moaning and looked to see one of the huntresses start to get up.

Ignoring the feeling that my legs were jell-o, I pushed myself up and stumbled over to the front doors, down the steps, and down the street toward Central Park. I stayed close to the walls, though, to make sure if they did come out, they'd have a hard time spotting me at such an acute angle.

Just as I got to the end of the building, almost to freedom, someone's hands shot out and grabbed me, pulling me behind that side of the Plaza. They covered my mouth with one hand and held me tightly around the waist. I didn't struggle or scream because I heard yelling just then, about my escape. They stood out there for a long time, arguing before going back inside.

The person removed their hand from my mouth, but I didn't try to escape. I just figured I'd just have to face the music now.

I gritted my teeth. "Go ahead, take me back upstairs." I spat. They shoved me forward and I turned to see who it was. "Daniel?"

"I've never seen you give up so easily before." he commented looking at me reproachfully. I glared at him.

"You'd better drag me back now or I'll make a break for it." I warned, even though I should've just booked it then.

Dan grabbed my arm roughly.

"You know, we might be able to trust you more if you didn't attempt stunts like these." he told me.

"I only perform stunts like these because I can't be treated like a prisoner any longer!" I yelled, not really caring if anyone heard me anymore.

My brother's grip tightened on my arm as he said, "We only treat you like one because you joined the Titans!" he snapped back. "How can we know if we can trust you in the first place?"

"You didn't even give me any time to explain."

"Why should we? You were with them for almost three years. Why come crawling back now? Change your mind? Did Luke dump you?"

I looked away from him, tears flooding my eyes. "You don't know anything." I said quietly through clenched teeth. I took a deep breath and looked back at him. "None of you do." The look in my eyes, or my facial expression, must've caught him off guard because his grip loosened and his eyes softened. That, in turn, caught me off guard. Dan had never shown he cared about me for 22 years. It was weird seeing that look of… solace, pity, in his eyes. Especially when it was directed at me.

After a moment his hand released my arm.

"Go." he said gesturing to the street with his chin. My mouth dropped and I looked around thinking that someone was going to pop out and say, "Just kidding!" or something. When nothing happened I took a cautious step away from Dan. And another. And another.

"Won't you get in trouble?" I asked, circling back around to face him.

"I'll make something up. Now, _go_ before I change my mind." he hissed waving me off.

I started to go but faced him one last time. "Thanks." I muttered awkwardly. He just waved for me to go again. I spun around and sprinted into Central Park, because I was thinking, no one would go looking for me in there. Even if they did, Percy wasn't going to have the whole regime go looking for one escaped prisoner. They all needed their strength and he needed them for upcoming battles. Even then, it's not like they'd be able to find me. Central Park was large and had bunches of trees. It was like the ultimate game of hide-and-seek, except of course I wasn't going to be found.

I stopped running as soon as Dan was out of my sight. I needed to catch my breath, and I was pretty sure I was safe now. Afterwards I strolled through the park, enjoying as much of the scenery as I could. I didn't have anything better to do anyway. And I _was_ going to die, right? Why not enjoy my last days alive? Why worry about the fate of the world? Or the war going on right now? It did me no good.

Then again, just thinking about my fate made it hard to enjoy anything anymore. I wished I was like those people who know they're going to die but act like they aren't. Instead of worrying about it constantly they enjoy every moment they're still alive with their family and friends; their loved ones. Alas, I was complete opposite. I couldn't get it out of my mind. Just the sound of her shears as she snipped my lifeline, made my stomach tighten painfully.

The question, though, was why I couldn't just cherish the moment. The golden rays of the sun, dousing the park in a brilliant light, making the greens of the leaves shimmer. The summer breeze that shook the leaves and ruffle my strands of loose hair.

Was it because that Manhattan had become a battle ground? Was it because I was afraid of dying? Was it because I was afraid of not being able to save Luke? Or was it because I didn't have anything left? I had nothing to live for anymore, so why should I care about anyone else's problems?

I froze. _No!_ I shouted at myself. _No, you do have something to live for: _one_ person to live for. And that is Luke. You weren't going to leave this earth until he was Luke again. That is what you promised yourself. That is what you swore on the River Styx. You can't abandon him like everyone else._

I continued walking again, shaking myself. That was right. _I_ was right… as strange as that sounds. I wasn't going to abandon him. I could never abandon him.

I pulled myself out of my grim thoughts and looked around, slightly disoriented. I was in a swath of trees. I guess I'd straggled off of the path while I was yelling at myself.

Great. Where was I now?

I walked forward a little more and the trees thinned. I scanned the scenery in front of me, through the trees and recognized Heckscher Playground. But that's not exactly what caught my eye. It was the big, blue giant—probably 30 feet tall, or so—standing in the middle and the humongous, white flag that was currently leaning against a tree. That's really all I saw. I couldn't focus on anything else. What had I gotten myself into now?

Well, it wasn't paying attention to me at the moment, so, keeping a close eye on it, I slowly backed away. How I could _not_ notice a 30-foot-tall giant was beyond me, but I had noticed it now, that's what mattered right? Of course I had no idea what he was doing here, and I didn't think I really wanted to know.

But of course, nothing and no one was on my side these days. Including luck. I hadn't event taken ten steps when the giant turned its gaze straight on me. I froze.

Shoot.

* * *

><p>He took a step toward me, crushing something. I didn't see what, though, because I was too busy looking up at his face. He didn't seem to notice that he stepped on anything at all.<p>

He said, "Uh-oh."

Yeah, uh-oh was right.

I ducked behind a tree, because I was panicking. I had just escaped from trouble, only to start wallowing and get myself into even bigger trouble. What was wrong with me? I needed to work on my focusing skills. They needed a major tune-up.

I heard the giant take another step, making the ground shake. Blood raced through my veins, my heart beating at a jagged pace. I wanted to throw my head back and wail to the sky, "Why me?"

I peeked around the trunk of the tree and saw a large blue hand coming toward me. I jumped out of the way, rolling, just as the giant wrapped his fingers around the tree I'd been previously hiding behind and plucked it up, roots and all, like it was a daisy.

It froze on contact. But the giant merely dropped it, muttering an, "Uh-oh," again, and then looking back at me.

I scrambled back before jumping to my feet and sprinting through the trees, not really caring where I went. So long as I didn't get caught and/or crash into a tree. But it's hard to outrun someone whose single leap could take them across a football field. I only made it so far before he started to reach out to grab me again. I quickly lunged over the short fence that separated this little sparse-y area from the playground and onto the pavement.

I guess I could've pulled my sword out on him, but I didn't think that'd do me much good. Besides, he didn't seem like a normal monster.

I stood up and brushed myself off. What was I thinking? I couldn't outrun a guy like him! Yeah, you could say I was giving up. I was just so tired of running, it wasn't even funny. It was just one thing to the next! It never stopped! Couldn't I just have a short break? It didn't even have to be longer than a minute.

So, I stood there, thinking, for sure, I was going to be a frozen Popsicle when someone (who sounded close by) called the giant's name.

"Morrain!" The blue giant froze; his hand feet away from me. I could feel the cold emanating off his hand. "Leave the girl!" the guy ordered. Morrain pulled back and went to entertain himself with something else. I turned to see who had called him off.

There were five people sitting at a picnic table. Three I recognized: Percy, Thalia, and Grover, the two others, I didn't. One was dressed in full Greek battle armor, the other wore a tux, and black, thick-rimmed glasses. I guessed he was the one who'd stopped Morrain because he looked more official.

When I looked at him, he smiled pleasantly, like we were old friends. "You're just the girl I've been looking for." he said.

I looked around, pointing to myself. My thoughts were an absolute mess.

"Well, you are Victoria Williams, aren't you?" the guy asked again. When I didn't answer him his eyebrows rose slightly. "You _are_ Victoria, correct?" he asked again.

I shrugged. "Tori works, too." I finally answered, unscrambling my brain, one thought at a time. I crossed my arms and walked toward the five at the picnic table. "Who's asking?"

The guy in the tux smiled again. "He was right, you do have spirit." he commented. As I got closer I realized that this man was taller than a normal human—about 7 feet. And he had scratches scattered all over his face. "I'm Prometheus," he introduced. "But I'm not the one who wants to see you."

"Oh? Who then?" I asked ignoring the stares from the other three.

Prometheus didn't answer, instead he said, "Guess."

I sighed and thought about this. There was really only one person (or should I say Titan) that I knew of that could possibly want anything to do with me. "Kronos. Why would he want to talk to me?" Prometheus shrugged. "Can he take a message?"

"Face-to-face was his order." the Titan told me. I sighed again. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, you came at the perfect time. We were just leaving."

"Now wait, just a second." Percy's voice came. Both Prometheus and I looked at him. He was standing, his steely gaze was turned on me; his jaw working.

"Yes?" I asked when he didn't say anything. Instead of answering me he turned toward Prometheus. "She is not going anywhere." he growled.

Prometheus raised his eyebrows. "Do I sense tension?" Sense it? You could cut it with a knife.

Percy turned back to me. Thalia and Grover stood behind him. They both had callous stares. "You tell me what you did to those half-bloods and Hunters." he demanded through gritted teeth.

Thalia's electric blue eyes blazed. "What?" she asked sharply, taking a step forward. "What did you do to my Hunters?" she yelled.

"They'll all be fine." I assured them in a dry voice.

Thalia shoved Percy aside. "That didn't tell me anything!"

"Thalia," Percy warned. But she was beyond listening to anyone anymore. She was absolutely and completely enraged.

"I swear I'll kill you." she spat grabbing her bow. "You've officially crossed the line, you piece of—"

"Thalia," Percy cautioned again, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Just calm down for a moment." he murmured, looking at her hardly. She looked like she wanted to object, but Percy stared her down, clearly telling her something "telepathically." He turned to look at me again, while Thalia tried to restrain herself from impaling me with her arrows, or stabbing me.

"They should be fine." I repeated tightly, crossing my arms. "The poison darts I used don't come from monster poison, so it shouldn't kill any of them. Some might have headaches, some might feel dizzy, or slightly nauseous, but other than that—"

"_Now_ can I kill her?" Thalia asked.

"Thalia—" Grover tried, bravely.

"No!" she shouted at him—he shrunk back—before turning back to Percy and pointing at me. "She _desecrated_ the Hunters! She _insulted_ Lady Artemis!"

"Can I say something?" I asked.

Thalia turned toward me, pulling out one of her knives and holding it to my throat. "No," she hissed. "You've said enough, and I suggest not saying _anything_ more if you know what's good for you." I was about to say it anyway when she continued. "You disgust me. You're just like them." I listened to her, staring at her pensively. "You deserve to be over there with the Titans. Trampling all over people, not even caring, or thinking, about the repercussions." With ever sentence she pushed her blade deeper into my neck. She was breathing heavily.

"I am not proud of what I've done." I told her quietly.

"Lies!" she growled, stomping her foot. A blast of lightning shot down from the sky and the next thing I remember was being thrown back about ten feet or so. I hit the pavement hard. Black spots danced across my vision and my whole left side felt numb before I realized it was actually tingling caustically; the hair along my arms stood on end, and some of my clothes were singed, filling my nose with that horrible burning smell.

"Can you stand?" I heard Prometheus's voice call.

I lifted my head to look over at the five, standing at the picnic table. My vision blurred and I let my head fall back again.

"I'm not sure." I groaned. Prometheus said something incomprehensible in response. I blinked hard trying to dispel the blurriness in my eyes, and the queasiness in my stomach. A few seconds later I saw the guy in all the armor standing over me with his hand outstretched.

Up close, I could see that this half-blood had an eye-patch over one eye and his nose was red and swollen like someone had punched him recently.

I struggled to sit up, my left side going numb all over again, when I put pressure on it. I hastily grabbed his hand and fought to stand up. When I completed this, I unsheathed my sword and used it as a crutch; grasping the hilt with both my hands. I gingerly stepped forward, only to almost fall over. The guy reached out to help, but I waved him off, regaining my balance.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." I muttered. Then I hobbled over to the picnic table, with the guy walking by my side… a little awkwardly, I might add. I knew he meant well, though.

"You okay?" Prometheus asked when I had finally made it over there.

"I'll tell you when the feeling in my left side comes back." I told him smiling. "Am I bleeding?" I asked.

"Just a bit," he answered pointing at his neck as a reference. "Right here."

I reached up and prodded it gently. I winced. It was where Thalia had been holding her blade, go figure. "Great. Can we get going now?" I asked.

Prometheus nodded, his eyes flickering over to where Percy, Thalia, and Grover were standing. "That would probably be wise." An _empousa_ appeared, seemingly, out of nowhere and laced her arm with his. "Morrain!" the Titan hollered looking over at the blue giant. "We're leaving. Get your flag."

He said, "Uh-oh."

The party started to head off, but Percy blurted, "Why—"

I stopped and looked back at him. "Are you talking to me?" I asked. His glower was enough of an answer. I looked back at the party who were looking at me. "Go ahead, I'll catch up… somehow." I muttered.

Prometheus turned toward the half-blood and ordered him to stay and wait for me. He didn't look too happy about that, but nodded. I sighed and shuffled over to them.

"What?" I asked in a very impatient tone.

"Why come back just to escape and go join them again?" Percy asked; his tone was hard to read. "You could've saved us a lot of time and misery."

"I'm not joining them!" I snapped.

Thalia snorted. "Could've fooled me." she scoffed.

"Then what are you doing?" Percy continued. "You're just going to be a prisoner there?"

"Does it make a difference where I am?" I asked harshly. "A prisoner's a prisoner."

"She wants to see Luke." Thalia observed.

"He's not Luke," Percy stated. "Luke is gone."

I bit down on my tongue as tears stung my eyes. "I'm not going to believe that." I told him solemnly.

"So, what?" he asked bitterly. "Another one of your rescue missions? 'Cause we all know how well _that_ worked out."

"You don't know what you're talking about." I growled.

"No, I think I do." he retorted just as quick. "You totally stabbed me in the back! Telling me that stupid lie that you were going to save Luke. I can't believe I even believed you in the first place."

I looked away, and closed my eyes for a moment. "I made a mistake, okay?" I looked back at him, meeting his gaze evenly. "There is nothing on this entire planet that I wouldn't give, wouldn't do, to take back what I've done. Now, I have a chance to make it right. Even if it kills me." I slowly turned to leave; the half-blood Prometheus had ordered to stay here came up to me to help.

"You're just _one_ person." Percy spoke softly. I pause and turned around to face him again. "You're going against a _Titan_. You really think you could make a difference?" His tone wasn't exactly belittling, but there was some kind of scorning; like saying, "As if."

"I may be just some insignificant nobody to Kronos," I started. "But I was somebody to Luke." I paused, looking down for a moment. "I am fighting—" I tried my voice shaking slightly. I closed my eyes and turned my head away. I felt ridiculous saying this, but I needed to get my point across. I swallowed hard and looked back at Percy. "I am fighting for something bigger than all of it."

The half-blood's hand hovered behind my shoulder, directing me to follow where Prometheus, the _empousa_, and the blue giant had gone. As we headed back, he rested his hand lightly on my shoulder. As a precaution I guess. At least it wasn't as awkward as the first time. (Don't ask me why, it just wasn't anymore.)

We walked swiftly, even though every step I took sent shockwaves of searing pain throughout my whole body.

I looked over at him, thinking of something to talk about, something to take my mind off of this pain. "You won't tell anyone I said that, will you?" I asked, all heartfelt emotions gone from my voice with me trying to hide that I was in so much pain taking its place.

The guy didn't respond but looked at me for a moment before turning his head back to the front. If I was correct I swear I saw indecision in his good eye. Like he was thinking about what I'd said. That or, whether or not he was going to rat me out.

"I never got your name." I said after a few minutes of silence. I looked over at him again.

"Ethan," he informed. "Ethan Nakamura, son of Nemesis."

* * *

><p>The HQ for the Titan army was… okay, let's face it. It was a dump, a trash-heap. It was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a forest and a singular, crumbling road with other rotting, unoccupied buildings and billboards that were peeling and faded. The building we were going up to had a large fence (well the remains of a nearly flattened fence) surrounding the yard which contained all kinds of statues, of people, Greek monsters, mythical Greek creatures, you name it, it was there. A lot of which had been broken and written on in graffiti paint.<p>

I shivered thinking about _just_ who had been here years before.

There was a big red sign hanging above the front doors to this building. I would've told you what it said, but it was at an angle and in cursive, making it extra hard for me to read.

Half of the roof was currently lying on the floor and there was a big yellow sign stapled to the door. I saw CNDOMEED, but I managed to decipher it as CONDEMED.

I guess I shouldn't be bashing it too harshly because they did have a lot of fighters on their side. Definitely way more than what Percy had.

Ethan led the way, and we walked through a maze of tents and campfires. I looked around at all the monsters, demigods, and even a few humans in battle armor. This wasn't looking too good for Olympus.

Just outside of the building was a purple-and-black banner flanked by two of those blue giants I'd met earlier today.

As Ethan and I neared the entrance, the doors flew open revealing Prometheus.

"The master is waiting for you inside. His patience is wearing very thin." he warned.

"Both of us?" Ethan asked. I looked over at him, his tone sounding frightened.

Prometheus nodded. "He would like to address you first, Nakamura."

Ethan swallowed hard before taking his helmet off, and adjusting his sword belt. Prometheus stepped aside and headed inside. He turned back to me and ushered me inside at a hurried pace, jostling my left side sorely.

I looked around as I staggered inside. Here were more statues of people, frozen in mid-scream, looks of pure terror on their faces. I shuddered. On one side was a snack bar and picnic tables that had been moved. And there, standing between a soda dispenser and a pretzel-warming machine was a golden throne. And in that throne was Luke.

_Not Luke! Kronos!_ My voice of reason hissed.

Right… Kronos, Kronos sat in the throne. His scythe was resting across his lap. It was scary because he was dressed in normal clothes: jeans and a t-shirt. He was staring off into space broodingly. If I hadn't known any better I would've thought he was still Luke. It was the eyes that gave it all away, those liquid gold eyes that made shivers run down my spine.

My jaw tightened and I had to look away; my heart throbbed in my chest. Suddenly the pain on my left side didn't seem so bad anymore. I was actually wishing for more of it just to get my mind off of… Luke.

Prometheus led me to one of the picnic tables and I heavily sat down, still holding onto my sword for support. I leaned heavily onto it, resting my forehead on the tip of the hilt. I got the courage to look back at Luke.

Kronos, my mind corrected.

Shut up, I snapped back.

Ethan came into view and Luke's face twisted into a vicious, cold-blooded smile. His golden eyes glowed. I squeezed my eyes shut tightly and took deep breaths, tightening my grip on the hilt and digging my nails into the back of my hand.

**Hope you enjoyed!**

**.happiness.**

**~ See you at Camp Half-Blood**


	4. Four

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson**

**A/N: I apologize in advanced for butchering Apollo's good-nature. Also, dialogue from TLO, so bear with me. Hope you enjoy!**

_**μῆλον της Ἔριδος  
><strong>_—  
>Apple of Discord<p>

"It's about time you showed up. What do you have to say for yourself?" Kronos asked.

I lifted my head, opened my eyes again, and tentatively raised my hand. Those gold eyes turned on me and I swallowed hard.

"Permission to speak, sir?" I asked my voice surprisingly steady.

"Granted."

"It's my fault. I was struck by lightning." I explained.

He looked at me for a second—a second too long in my opinion—and finally turned his gaze to Ethan who flinched. I relaxed.

"Well, Nakamura. What did you think of the diplomatic mission?" he asked.

There was a pause. "I'm sure Lord Prometheus would be better suited to speak—"

"But I asked _you_." Kronos said his eyes glowing brighter for a moment.

More hesitation as Ethan's eye darted around the room. "I… I don't think Jackson will surrender. Ever." he finally answered.

Kronos nodded. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?"

"N-no, sir." Ethan stuttered.

"You look nervous, Ethan." Kronos commented, probably enjoying seeing him squirm.

"No, sir," Ethan answered quickly. "It's just… I heard this was the lair of—"

"Medusa?" Kronos finished. "Yes, quite true. Lovely place, eh? Unfortunately, Medusa hasn't re-formed since Jackson killed her, so you needn't worry about joining her collection. Besides, there are much more dangerous forces in this room." His voice became menacing.

Kronos looked over at a giant, chomping down on some french fries audibly. With a wave of his hand the giant froze, a french fry he'd just thrown up freezing in midair, feet away from his mouth.

"Why turn them to stone," Kronos asked a satisfied smile forming on his face, "when you can freeze time itself?" He turned his burning gaze back to Ethan. "Now, tell me one more thing." Kronos requested. Ethan swallowed hard. "What happened last night on the Williamsburg Bridge?"

Ethan quivered under Kronos's hard stare; the light in the room reflected off the beads of sweat on his face. "I… I don't know, sir." he answered his voice on the brink of shaking.

"Yes, you do." Kronos told him in a warning tone, rising from his throne. "When you attacked Jackson, something happened. Someone was not quite right. The girl, Annabeth, jumped in your way."

"She wanted to save him."

"But he is invulnerable," Kronos reminded his voice deadly quiet. "You saw that yourself."

"I… can't explain it." Ethan paused. "Maybe she forgot."

"She forgot," Kronos said, impatience clear in his eyes. "Yes, that must've been it. _Oh dear, I forgot my friend is invulnerable and took a knife for him. Oops._" It was kind of weird to see a Titan, who'd been alive for, like, ever use sarcasm. "Tell me, Ethan, where were you aiming when you stabbed at Jackson?"

Ethan's brow furrowed, as he went back to the battle. He mimed holding his sword, thrusting it forward. "I'm not sure, sir." he said, still on the bridge for a moment before his eyes focused back on Kronos. "It all happened so fast. I wasn't aiming for any spot in particular."

Kronos's mouth became a thin line and he tapped the blade of his scythe. "I see," he said his tone making chills run down my spine. "If your memory improves, I will expect—"

Abruptly the Titan flinched. I noticed the giant unfreeze, his french fry dropping into his mouth. Kronos fell back, sinking into his throne. I stood up slightly, ignoring how my left side burned.

"My lord?" Ethan asked in a small voice, taking a couple steps forward.

"I—"My heart jumped and then nearly soared when he spoke again, because, just for a second, it was Luke's. It was weak, but it was his. He was still in there, still alive, still fighting. There was just a glimmer of hope, it was just a tiny glimmer, but it was there, and I wasn't going to let it go.

I eased myself back onto the bench. I started to calm my racing heart. I just had to find a way to talk to him. How, I wasn't sure, but at least now I was one step closer to, possibly, saving him.

This didn't last very long. Not even a second passed before Kronos's face hardened. He raised his hands, flexing his fingers, like he was getting used to this body all over again.

"It is nothing," His voice was back to being cutting and heartless. "A minor discomfort."

"He's still fighting you, isn't he?" Ethan asked bravely. "Luke—"

"Nonsense," Kronos snarled. "Repeat that lie, and I will cut out your tongue. The boy's soul has been crushed. I am simply adjusting to the limits of this form. It requires rest. It is annoying, but no more than a temporary inconvenience."

"As… as you say, my lord." Ethan agreed quickly.

"You!" Kronos turned his attention to a _dracaena_ wearing green armor and a matching crown, pointing his scythe at her. "Queen Sess, is it?"

"Yesssss, my lord." she hissed.

"Is our little surprise ready to be unleashed?"

Queen Sess bared her fangs in a contorted, demonic smile. "Oh, yessss, my lord. Quite a lovely ssssurprissse."

"Excellent," Kronos said, with an approving nod. "Tell my brother Hyperion to move our main force south into Central Park. The half-bloods will be in such disarray they will not be able to defend themselves. Go now, Ethan. Work on improving your memory. We will talk again when we have taken Manhattan."

Ethan bowed and then scurried out.

And then there was one.

Me.

* * *

><p>I wasn't really looking forward to this coming conversation.<p>

Kronos turned toward me and I tried not to flinch or cringe away. My stomach was doing flip-flops. My heart, which was currently in my throat, was beating at an oddly slow, rhythmic pace. But it dominated all my other senses.

I was about to get up, thinking I needed to stand where Ethan had, however, before I could Kronos rose from his throne and started toward me. I froze, my mind going absolutely blank.

I was paralyzed. I couldn't move; I even stopped breathing. I wasn't sure if it was out of fear or some other emotion, but I didn't like it at all.

He came over and sat down opposite of me. I fought to take control of my body again and robotically turned to face him, situating my sword against my leg, and resting my hands on the table. I tried to look at him, but I could only manage it for seconds at a time.

He set his scythe down in the table and I involuntarily pulled my hands back slightly.

The ache in my chest became more pronounced, making it harder to block out, making it harder to breathe; like the breath was being sucked right out of me…. That also could've been because I was so close to Kronos's scythe, but I wasn't quite sure.

Kronos smiled. "Hello, Victoria," he greeted politely. I opened my mouth to correct him. "Tori." he said before I could. I closed my mouth, smiled apprehensively and nodded. "I'm sure you're wondering why you're here."

I nodded again.

His eyebrows rose slightly. "Can you speak?"

I swallowed hard and forced my voice to work. "Yes, sir."

"Nervous?" The Titan lord leaned forward a bit, but it still made my stomach tighten, and had me feeling really uneasy.

"Yes, sir." I said again in a smaller voice.

"You have no reason to be." he assured. I looked at him warily. "You would be a great asset to our army." he continued. "Don't you think that it's time for the gods to pay for what they've done?" he asked in an alluring whisper. "Wouldn't you like to see Olympus fall?"

I considered this, weighed all the possible things that could happen in my head. Kronos didn't miss this.

He smiled his gold eyes glowing. "I'll take you up to Olympus. Let you watch their thrones collapse, and in turn, the gods."

That seemed a little too good to be true. Why would _the_ Titan lord take me, personally, with him up to Olympus? Me: an inconsequential, nondescript half-blood. It didn't add up.

Kronos leaned back, studying me with those piercing golden eyes. "You don't believe me." he stated.

Biting my lip I cautiously shrugged, as if to say, "Well… I have a good reason to." I was just too afraid to say those actual words. I'm surprised with myself that I even managed the shrug.

He regarded me coldly, his eyes boring a hole into my skull. One of his hands came forward and I thought, Oh boy, I'm done for now. I thought for sure he was going to take his scythe and chop me up into little pieces right there.

But Kronos wasn't reaching for his scythe, his hand passed over it in disinterest. Instead, to my absolute and complete shock, he touched my left hand and gently turned it over. He then pulled his hand back, his fingers trailing over the scars on my palm and fingers, making me shiver. His touch was strangely cold and cutting, like knife.

I looked back up at Kronos, confused. I couldn't read his facial expression.

"He visited you, didn't he." It was more a statement than a question.

My left hand clenched into a fist, and I drew it to my chest, cradling it delicately with my right. I looked away; squeezing my eyes shut as that memory came flooding into my conscious mind, raw and painful. I let out a harsh breath through my teeth, turning it into a hiss.

"What are you doing?"

I jumped and opened my eyes. I was standing in a ballet studio back in Denver, Colorado, holding a mop, a bucket full of murky water sat a few feet away from me. My left side didn't hurt anymore and I could feel it again. Outside I could see other skyscrapers, and the sun shone brightly. Some of the windows were open to let the breeze blow in and cool down the place.

I looked around confused and stopped when I met Alexis's eyes.

"Alexis?" I asked in awe.

"No, I'm the Queen of England." she said sarcastically. Honestly, I would've believed that more than what was happening now. I wasn't sure if it was a flashback or a dream or… what, but it was all too real. "Get back to work. I don't teach you just to have you sit around and do nothing."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," I muttered as I started mopping again.

"You missed a spot." she told me pointing to the general area.

"Ha-ha, you're hilarious." I called as she went into her office. I put my earphones back in my ears and turned the music up as I finished cleaning the floors. Half-way through I got thirsty and went to get a glass of water. I came back, leaned on the broom, and took a sip.

"Tori!" I just barely heard Alexis call from the next room. I pulled out one of earphones just in time to hear her yell, "Door!"

"Yeah, so, what do you want me to do about it!" I shouted back.

"Answer it, what do you think?"

"Why do I have to?"

"Because I'm busy!"

"Yeah, well, so am I!"

Alexis came to stand in the doorway of her office, one eyebrow raised, lips pursed.

I rolled my eyes, took out my other earphone and wrapped the wire around my neck, and started for the door, glass still in hand, letting the mop clatter to the floor. Alexis went back to her work station.

I opened the door and closed it just as quick… well "slammed" would be a more appropriate word actually. My right hand gripped the handle so hard my knuckles turned white, the left holding the glass just as firm. I felt all the blood drain from my face and my stomach tighten painfully.

"Tori? Did you just slam the door on someone? That was extremely rude." Alexis asked. I heard her footsteps echo off the hardwood floors. Her hand came on my tense shoulder. "Tori—" I could tell from her tone she was about to scold me, but when she saw my face she became concerned. "Are you all right? You look like you just saw a ghost."

I couldn't answer. I couldn't think. I couldn't move.

Alexis pried my hand from the door knob and ushered me back and slightly off to the side. With another weird look at me she opened the door and immediately understood. She looked at him for a moment before looking back at me. I stared straight ahead, still frozen, but also refusing to look at either of them. My jaw ached from all the pressure I was putting on it, but I couldn't relax a single muscle, even if I tried.

"May I come in?" he asked.

Alexis stepped aside, opened the door wider and waved him in. My right hand balled into a tight fist, my nails digging into my palm. My left hand, which was still holding the cup, clawed around the glass.

Still, he stepped in, Alexis closing the door behind him.

She looked back and forth between us twice.

"Should I leave you two alone?" she asked warily.

That was my breaking point, the muscles in my arms tightened and the glass shattered, slicing my hand and embedding themselves into my fingers. I blinked and flinched as a jerk reaction. The glass that wasn't in my hand fell to the floor along with the water.

Alexis let out a frustrated sigh and walked over to me. I let my hand unfurl blood and water dripping from it. Three large shards were buried in my hand as well as some little ones.

Alexis took my hand gently in hers and examined it. "Now look what you've done." I couldn't tell if she was talking to me or him. "Come on, let's get you cleaned up." she muttered starting toward the bathroom. She glanced at him. "If you'll excuse us a moment."

She closed the door, took my iPod, set it aside, and started pulling the shards out of my hand carefully. It was painful, but I was too stunned to really feel any of it.

"That's unfortunate." she commented getting a rag wet and dabbing my hand with it. That hurt more and I jerked away before Alexis pulled my hand back and held it firmly so she could clean the wounds. "I used up the last of the ambrosia and nectar yesterday." She sighed and turned the water off. "You'll have to get stitches." she informed looking at the wounds. "For now I'll wrap it up. I'm assuming you want to talk to him."

"Then you assumed wrong." I told her in a monotone, still staring blankly ahead.

Alexis dropped my hand and slapped me. I looked at her, my eyes wide.

"Oh, don't give me that look." she spat. "You need to snap out if this!" she shouted taking my shoulders and shaking me. "You are a strong, independent, grown woman now, and—"

"Yeah, but he's a god." I interrupted raising my hand. She glared at me and I lowered my hand, waiting for her to continue.

"And," she started again, "you shouldn't be intimidated by him."

"Well, I'm not exactly intimidated, it's more a of a… hate so much I make the girl from _The Grudge_ look like a bedtime story." I elaborated.

Alexis smiled creepily. "Well, maybe now's the time to let off some steam."

"Yeah, but he's a god." I repeated.

"Honey, if the girl from _The Grudge_ can make people go crazy angry and die, I think you can tell your father off."

"Yeah, but—"

"—he's a god. I got that." Alexis finished dryly. "But why let that stop you? Didn't stop me."

"You told Ares off?" I asked incredulous. "And lived?"

Alexis simply smiled mysteriously and instead said, "Let's get that hand of yours bandaged up before you collapse from blood loss."

She wrapped my hand up expertly, like she'd done it before, and pushed me out against my will before following.

"Sorry for the wait," she apologized to Apollo as I slowly walked out, leaning heavily against the wall, feeling sick to my stomach. "Tori, I'm going to head out. Lock up for me?" she asked turning back to face me.

I nodded and waved my bandaged hand, breathing deeply, trying to expel the nauseous feeling.

"Um… maybe I should show you where the keys are." she said quickly probably seeing my green face. She came over, grabbed my arm and dragged me into her office. "Don't make my slap you again." she hissed quietly. "Get it together!"

"I think you need to slap me again." I groaned, almost throwing up right then. So she did.

"Better?" she asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, yeah… better." She slapped me again. "Okay, I think I'm good now." I said with more authority.

Alexis smiled. "Good. Now, go out and talk to him." She waved me out of her office, slamming the door as soon as I was out.

I stared at the door for a moment before taking a deep breath, putting on my poker face and turning around.

He was sitting in one of the chairs on the opposite side of the room, next to the hallway that led down to the bathroom. He was looking out one of the windows, lost in thought.

I sighed and grabbed the trash can before going over to where I'd broke the cup and started picking up the glass shards. The only noise in the room was the little _plink_ as the glass bits dropped into the trash and on top of each other.

The door to Alexis's office opened again and Alexis stepped out with her bag over her shoulder. She stood in the doorway for a moment eyes narrowed looking first at Apollo then at me. She walked forward and cleared her throat, her eyes flickering up to him. I fought the urge to stick my tongue out at her, and made a face instead.

Her eyes flickered up to where he was sitting again before she looked back at me, and gave me a stern look before turning and walking out, leaving me alone with Apollo.

When I finished picking up all the pieces I took a fleeting glance back at Apollo. He was still staring out the window. I stood and picked up the trash can and dropped it back where I'd gotten it. Then I went back over to where I'd left the mop and bucket of water. I slowly bent over to pick up the mop, looking at him again through the corners of my eyes. His eyes were on me now.

I straightened up, with both the mop and bucket in hand. I trudged over to the spot that was a watery red. I stared to clean up, but winced and looked at my wounded hand. Little spots of red were already seeping through the gauze.

I let out a heavy sigh and leaned on the mop. I had to just stop avoiding the inevitable. I'd dreamed about this day (as vapid as that sounds), where I'd talk to him, ask him questions even though he probably wouldn't be able to answer, maybe yell a little. You know the works of meeting a parent that hadn't been there your whole life, even though he or she knew about you.

I thought that I'd overcome all those insecurities and be brave, push through the fear, because honestly I was kind of scared. I don't know why I felt scared, I don't know why I couldn't stand up to him like I'd wanted to all these years.

"You shouldn't be here." I finally told him. Probably not the first, best thing to say, but it's what came out of my mouth. Besides, it was true. It wasn't like he could tell me anything about what was to come or give me "fatherly advice" that hinted at anything that was going to happen to me in the near future.

I heard him stand up.

"I know." he answered.

"Then what are you doing here?" Sudden anger overwhelmed me, trumping the fear, and I turned around to glare at him. He looked older from the last time I'd seen him (a teenager back then), I wasn't sure if he was taking on the look for my sake or… whatever. But it did make me feel a little more at ease because it'd be weird talking to an eighteen-year-old, addressing him as "father." Especially when I was twenty-two. I'd be five years older than him (if we're not speaking in technical terms here). Talk about a mystery.

"You haven't shown me you care about me yet. Why start now?" I spat.

Apollo walked up to me and gently rested his hand on my bandaged one. His expression was hard to read, his eyes… oh, his eyes were an impeccable blue. Luke's impeccable blue… and it wasn't fair! Using my emotions like that.

"Tori—" he started.

I jerked my hand away from his. "Don't touch me!" I hadn't known it at the time, but he'd actually been healing my wounded hand. I'd pulled away too fast, that's why I still had scars.

"I care about you very much." he said. I started shaking my head before he even finished. I dropped the mop and shoved past him, just needing to move a little. I started pacing, as I continued to shake my head. Tears formed in my eyes and I fought to hold them back.

"You don't! You don't care. You _never_ cared." My voice was thick, trying to keep it from shaking, trying to keep my tears at bay. "You didn't even have the decency to claim me"—I stopped pacing and looked at him—"when you _knew_! You're the god of prophecies! How could you not? _You knew_"—my voice trembled and I swallowed hard, trying to keep it steady—"and you still ignored me."

His eyes tightened and he took a step toward me. "Tori, you know that we're very busy—"

"I know," I cut him off through clenched teeth. I blinked and big, fat tears came rolling down my cheeks. I quickly wiped them away. "I know, because that's what everyone tells me _all the time_! And I'm tired of that excuse. You claimed my brother and not me. We're _twins_. And you only claimed him!

"Do you know how many nights I lied away thinking that you hated me? That you were… _ashamed_ of me? Thinking that no one in my life loved me? First my mom gives me away and keeps my brother, now he's claimed and I'm not. I tried—" I swallowed the bile that formed in my throat. "I tried to think of a reason that she would do that. That you would do that. I really did, I wanted to believe that I still had parents that truly cared; that truly loved me." My voice broke and more tears streamed down my face. I bit my lip and shook my head, bringing a hand up to my forehead and taking a handful of some of my hair. "But that was a ridiculous thought. I should've never gotten my hopes up like that."

Apollo walked up to me. He tried to put his hands on my shoulders, but I jerked away. I sniffled and wiped my remaining tears away, refusing to meet his eyes.

"That's _not_ true. Your mother and I love you very much." He pronounced each word slowly and carefully, trying to put more conviction behind his words.

My anger swelled up again, and blood roared in my ears. "Of course you guys loved me!" I laughed bitterly. "Of course you cared about me. That's why my mother left me out on the streets of New York in the middle of the winter and _kept_ my brother! That's why you've totally ignored me for twenty-two years, not evening having the… integrity to at least acknowledge me in some, small way! If that's what you call love, than you're sick." I snarled.

He obviously didn't like that comment. Not that anyone would.

His face hardened and he took a step forward. "Watch your mouth!"

"Or you'll what!" I challenged. "Turn me into a mouse? Kill me? As if the gods could sink any lower." I growled through clenched teeth. He didn't say anything to this and nothing happened to me, so I figured I'd slipped by, by some miracle. "That's what I thought." I turned and looked out at one of the windows.

"Tori," he said quietly. "You have to understand that I can't intervene directly with any of my children's lives. None of the gods can. It's—"

"—one of the Ancient Laws." I finished grimly, nodding. "I know." I remembered this from the time when Luke had told me about his meeting with his own father, Hermes. I blinked, more tears fell again. I wiped them away and took a deep breath, composing myself. "I know." I repeated quieter.

"You can't even begin to imagine how much it pains me to see you hurt like this." He spoke softly, so soft I almost didn't hear him.

I turned, ready to retort with a sarcastic, tart comment, but when I saw his facial expression—the pure _grief_ in his eyes—the words died in my throat. I had to turn away again, it was so intense. It also had me feeling like something terrible was going to happen to me.

I was tempted to ask him what he was _really_ doing here (because gods rarely dropped by to "talk", they were much too busy for that) but I knew he'd never tell me. I was tempted to ask him what was going to happen to me that was so horrible, he had to look at me like I was on my death bed, but I knew that he wouldn't tell me anything about that either.

"It must suck," I finally said.

"Pardon?" he asked.

I turned around to face him. "Being immortal; being a god, I mean." I clarified, walking back over to the bucket and mop to finish cleaning up. I did, after all, still have to lock up when I was done talking with Apollo.

"Well, you get used to it after the first thousand years or so." he answered.

"Good point," I said a ghost of a smile forming on my face, as I picked the mop and bucket and went to dump the water before storing them back in the storage closet. I came back into the studio. "But that's not exactly what I meant." I finished, heading past him to get the keys in Alexis's office.

"Then what did you mean, exactly?" he asked crossing his arms as I walked back out, shutting her door and locking that (it was an extra precaution).

I grabbed my bag from the far corner of the room. "I mean…" I trailed off thinking about this as I went back into the bathroom, remembering my iPod was in there. I came out and stopped to look at him. "It must be hard knowing the fate of your children, but not doing anything about it; almost like watching it play out in front of you like a tragic movie you've already seen. You know the plot, the characters, the ending and yet… you—seemingly—can't do anything about it. The only difference being you can actually interact with the characters. The characters you've come to adore, care about, love. And what do you do? Still nothing." I finished, shrugging.

"I can't control what happens." Apollo said carefully, getting the point to my whole tangent. "It's the Fates who decide who is born, how long they live, and when they die. Even the gods have to abide by what they say."

"So if it's already decided, why does it make a difference if you tell us what's going to happen in the end?"

"Because then they go and try to change their destiny."

"Exactly! Haven't you heard that saying, one meets their destiny on the path they take to avoid it?"

"You don't understand, Tori. If we told all our children what was going to happen to them in the end, if we tried to influence the choices they made, things would break out into total chaos. All of our children must find their own way, their own path." He paused; his eyebrows knitted together, that absolute despair flooding back into his eyes again. "I'm not going to tell you anything. I _cannot_."

My jaw clenched and I sighed. Well, it was worth a try anyway, I suppose….

Gripping the strap of my bag, I closed my eyes for a moment. "Fine, then," I told him throwing the strap over my shoulder. "I don't need you anyway. I've stayed alive for twenty-two years without you or my mother, I'm sure I can make it twenty-two more."

Apollo's eyes flashed with an emotion so quickly my mind couldn't comprehend what it was.

Chills ran down my spine and I could just hear him say, loud and clear in my head, "If only it were that long."

I took a deep breath and went over to the door. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go now." I said as I opened the door.

"Tori—" he started.

"Apollo," I interrupted turning to face him. I kept my face devoid of any emotion. "Blow it out your ears." And with that I slammed the door closed, locked it and was on my merry way.

**.happiness.**

**~ See you at Camp Half-Blood**


	5. Five

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson**

**A/N: I know that part of this chapter is going to be extremely cliché, and cheesy but I need a break from all this doom and gloom for just a little while before it gets to the **_**real**_** tragic part. Also, I'm not sure how the Titan camp is supposed to work so I was flying by the seat of my pants. Hope you enjoy!**

**τόσο κοντά  
><strong>—  
>So Close<p>

I blinked, trying to gather my bearings. That vision was really vivid, too vivid. I took in deep breaths and looked around, not moving my head.

I was lying on the ground in Kronos's base camp; my sword was laying a few feet in front of me.

Jeez.

But, that's what I got for not eating for about two days, and then getting struck by lightning, right?

I moved my right hand onto the floor, and slowly pushed myself up into a sitting position. Kronos was still sitting at the picnic table. He was looking down on me with those chilling golden eyes. His face was blank.

I grabbed my sword with my left hand and started to push myself up. The feeling was starting to come back, but that wasn't exactly a good thing. It burned and blazed worse than before when I used any muscles on my left side, whatsoever.

I put my right arm on the picnic table and put all my weight on my right side as I struggled to sit myself onto the bench again. I was breathing heavily when I finally situated myself. I let my sword lean against my leg again, and looked at Kronos.

"It's absolutely horrible, isn't it?" he continued, like nothing had happened. I vaguely wondered how long I'd been out. "The gods know the fate of their children and yet they don't do anything about it. Some parents they are." His eyebrows quirked up slightly. "And your mother"—my jaw clenched—"she gave you away didn't she? Didn't want you but kept your brother, Daniel."

"What's your point?" I snapped. It was only a moment after I had said those words did I realized what I'd done. My eyes widened. "I'm sorry, sir." I quickly amended. I was about to say more when Kronos held his hand up. I swallowed the bile in my throat.

"Would you like to know why your mother gave you away?" he asked in a soft, melodic voice. It was hypnotic, is what it was.

"I… don't… know." I answered truthfully. I mean, did I? What if it was some terrible thing? I didn't think I could handle any more shocks for today. My heart would surely go into cardiac arrest or something and I'd keel over.

"Haven't you been at all curious? Are you really going to believe that lie that your mother loved you? A loving mother would keep her children and care for them no matter what. But she didn't do that did she?" he asked. I shook my head mutely. A smile formed on his lips. "That's right. She left you all by yourself on the street. Vulnerable. Cold. You almost died, correct?" I nodded again wondering why he was bringing all of this up; opening old wounds. "So wouldn't you like to know?" he asked again in the whisper, leaning forward slightly. "Why she gave you away? There's a reason Apollo didn't tell you this information."

I think about this for another moment, Kronos's gold eyes never leaving my face, which really wasn't helping my train of thought.

"Okay." I finally say. What did I have to lose?

Kronos smiled, his eyes flashing wickedly and I automatically started to doubt my rash decision.

"It's quite simply, really." he started. "You just didn't show up on the ultrasound."

"You mean I wasn't even supposed to be born in the first place?" I asked my voice tight.

"I would seem that way, but no," he said patiently. "Everyone who is supposed to be born is born. You just didn't show up on the ultrasound."

There was a double meaning in his words. I just had to figure it out. _Are you really going to believe that lie that your mother loved you?_ Well, it had been obvious she _hadn't_ loved me. If she had she would've at least dropped me off at the hospital or someplace public if she really did care about me and couldn't afford to keep me or whatever. Not the street. Not in the middle of winter. I could've been eaten by a monster. I almost died from hypothermia.

It would seem that way; that I wasn't supposed to be born in the first place? Well, there was one thing that came to mind when I thought about this. And it was only because I'd watched a TV show about it. But it made sense. The reason she gave me away. The reason she doesn't love me. The reason she only kept my brother.

"She thought I was some kind of… demon baby, didn't she?" I asked, my throat practically closing up on me. Kronos nodded that smile still on his face. I felt like I couldn't breathe. My own mother thought I was some kind of… monster? Some loving parent she was. "Why are you telling me?"

"Because I thought you should know." He shrugged indifferently. "It's not fair that the gods don't tell you things that involve you, don't you think? You deserve to know these things. To know what happened in your childhood. Apollo didn't tell you because he's just scared."

"Scared?"

"Of course, he's scared that you'll become angry with him and the gods and join my side." he said this like it was the most blatant thing in the world.

I snorted. "I've hated him for seven years. It's a little late for all that."

"So you've decided to join us, then?" Kronos asked.

"What? No, I was simply saying—" I broke off when his eyebrows rose in a challenge. My own eyes narrowed. So that's the way he wanted play, huh? "Okay." I said nodding. "All right, I got it. What do I get in return?" I asked bravely. It was the strangest thing where I knew my fate was to die (and soon was my guess), so I wasn't really scared anymore.

Kronos regarded me coldly. "I believe I've already offered something for you." he said stiffly. "I'll take you with me to Olympus and let you watch the gods fall. Let you have your revenge on your father, Apollo."

"But that seems like an awful lot, not that it's not _very_ generous of you," I added quickly, "it just seems something for someone who's pledged themselves to you since you first started to reform, or something."

Kronos's scary smile reappeared and picked up his scythe. I froze; became totally paralyzed. I couldn't move a single muscle. It was horrible. I felt like I couldn't even breathe properly. I struggled to just take a breath in, let my lungs expand and contract.

He lifted his scythe and my heart lurched in my chest, but I still couldn't move. I couldn't even turn my head as he brought the wicked six-foot-long blade forward, toward me. I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes for a moment and focused on my breathing which was starting to shake. The blade just oozed dread and death. It sucked all the air around me.

I felt burning start on my right temple. My eyes snapped open and I looked out of the corners. He was dragging the blade down from my temple. I didn't know if the blade was touching my skin or not, but it still burned. It hurt, throbbed with pain. It felt like he was cutting me, but he couldn't really have been. It was just the blade. It was powerful. It was evil.

"Because you don't' know it, but you've done me a big favor. A favor that should be rewarded." Kronos finally answered.

My eyebrows furrowed a fraction of an inch, and I tried to ask him when or how I'd helped him, but my muscles still weren't responding to my brain's commands.

Kronos nodded. "Oh yes, you have. It was three years ago on the _Princess Andromeda_. Luke was weak," he sneered. "Your words were getting to him. But _I_ convinced him otherwise. I convinced him to talk to you. I knew that he was the only one that you'd listen to. And you did. Which I have to thank you for. Because if you hadn't I wouldn't be here today."

With that Kronos stood and walked back to his throne, thankfully, brining his scythe with him. Leaving me, sitting there, staring at the seat he'd been sitting in, and wondering if I was the one who had caused all this. I had the power to stop it, or delay it, but I chose wrong.

I was the one who had caused this war.

* * *

><p>Ethan was summoned back inside and helped me out. Led me to one of the closest campfires with a bunch of other half-bloods. Not the ideal place to stay, but where else was I supposed to go? He handed me a plate of something that looked like cafeteria mystery meat. It was too dark to see what it really was, and the flickering of the flame was like a strobe light. It wasn't helping my vision at all.<p>

But my stomach rumbled at the sight and smell of food, I hadn't eaten in two whole days. It smelled decent enough (although I think anything would've smelled decent in my state), and there wasn't anything else to eat, so I had no other choice.

With slight hesitation, I scooped up some of this mystery meat and lifted the spoon up to my mouth, which watered. It wasn't too bad. I think it was beef, but it had a weird edge to it. Not like a tang or heat, just this edge that wasn't usually in the meat you bought at the store.

I couldn't chew at first because when the food hit my taste buds they rejoiced, rejoiced so much that my jaw ached and not in a good way. Still, it wasn't bad. And I was ravished. However, before I could even take another bite someone shoved me from behind. Not being ready for this, the place jostled forward and fell over, the food spilling onto the ground.

I hit my breaking point.

Standing and being careful to not put too much pressure on my left leg I turned to look for who had just done that. There was a man who was just walking away; he was probably late twenties, early thirties, tallish, with dirty blonde hair.

"Excuse me," I said walking over to him. He stopped and turned.

"May I help you?" he asked.

"You didn't just happen to bump into me a minute ago did you?" I asked ignoring his haughty tone.

"I'm usually really good at remembering things, but… you know, I just can't recall at the moment." He was so mocking me now. I scowled at him but couldn't think of something witty to say quickly enough. "If we're done here…" The man smiled, and started to walk past me, but I stuck my foot out and tripped him. He hit the ground with a grunt.

I crossed my arms. "Now do you remember?" I inquired not turning to face him. I heard him jump up. That's when I turned. He was shooting daggers at me.

"I don't think you have the right to take up space, and eat our food and drink our water. That is for people who actually fight in this war!" he shouted. "I'm not going to let some… girl—"

"Okay, let's get something straight." I spat cutting him off. "First of all, I'm twenty-two."I jabbed a finger in his chest. "Secondly, I've slept ten hours and haven't had food or water in two whole days. So, _don't-push-me._" I growled through my teeth.

The guy didn't respond. Honestly he looked kind of scared of me.

"If we're done here…" I copied him. I walked past, shoving his shoulder for good measure. I was probably two steps away when he said, "You know what,"

I turned just as he threw his fist at me. I caught his wrist easily and diverted his punch while throwing my own. It connected with his face, right between the eyes. The guy dropped, unconscious for a second.

"Gotta be faster than that, _mortal_." I taunted before stepping over him and taking my place back around the campfire that Ethan had led me to. The other half-bloods who had their weapons in hands had stopped their sharpening to look at me. I sat down and glared at them. "What?"

They looked at me for another second before turning back to their swords. Ethan handed me a water bottle.

I eyed it distastefully. "Thanks." I said dryly taking it from him. He shrugged. I uncapped it and downed half the water. I glared at the flames.

That was it. I was going to die from starvation.

* * *

><p>I was asleep. I was sure I'd fallen asleep. Of course I had to dream. I just couldn't get a break around here! Just once I wished I could fall asleep without having some ominous dream nowadays. I wasn't some special demigod. I was just… me.<p>

Well, anyway I was sitting (criss-cross) in the middle of a large ballroom—yeah, I know right? Transparent people were dancing and twirling around me, not actually touching the floor. They all wore decorative, fun masks and were dressed in period-piece dresses and suits (thankfully I was just dressed in jeans and tee, nothing fancy). Instruments played by themselves and the people danced in time with the music. Echo-y laughs came from all around, but it didn't look like any of the dancers were laughing. That I could tell anyway, they were spinning too fast and their masks hid their expressions.

The edges of the room were really watery, like blurry and… not solid. Beyond that stretched blackness. Okay, more weirdness. Maybe this was just me. Just my subconscious mind trying to work problems out.

The song that was currently playing ended and then a new song started. It was one of those slow songs. I'd heard it before. From a movie I think. What was the name…? Oh, _Enchanted_. That was it. Yeah, it was song that was playing when they went to the ball.

Great, now my dreams were turning into stereotype romance movies. (Not that I didn't like _Enchanted_. I'm just saying.)

I was just about to wake myself up (somehow) because this was pointless. I didn't even think it was my mind working out issues. I mean a ballroom? Dancers? Music? What did that have to do with anything?

But before I could pinch myself or jump off the edge of this ballroom, someone asked, "May I have this dance?" while holding out a hand. I froze, my heart pounding slowly and loudly in my chest. I'd recognize that voice anywhere.

Slowly, I followed the hand up the arm and to the face of none other than—

"Luke?" I asked breathless, looking at him in disbelief. He was wearing jeans and tee like me. I looked back up at him and met his beautiful blue eyes that I hadn't seen in two whole years.

I wanted to ask if I was dreaming but that seemed a little redundant. Still I couldn't believe my eyes. It must have just been my mind playing tricks on me. I was missing Luke, that was all. After seeing him overpower Kronos for a second my mind got stuck on him. That was logical. That made sense.

Or someone could be torturing me. Bringing him back, letting me see him and then ripping him away from brutally. That also made sense.

Luke smiled and my heart broke once again. I gave into temptation and all the little voices that were telling me that this was a bad idea. To be with Luke one more time meant more than anything in the world to me. I wasn't about to pass it up. I reached up and took his hand. He pulled me into him, putting a hand on the small of my back, keeping his other hand in mine. I put my free hand on his shoulder.

Everything seemed to disappear (metaphorically speaking of course) and it was just me and him. We spun in a small circle, not really following the ghost dancers around us, facing each other, never looking away from each other. No words were spoken, but none needed to be. Even if there was, this wasn't the time.

I blinked and big, fat tears rolled down my cheeks. Luke gave me a sad smile and pulled me into him, wrapping his arm completely around my waist. I closed my eyes, resting my head in the crook of his neck, and tried to focus on how good I felt when I was with him. How good it felt to know he was holding me in his strong embrace. How good it felt to have his warm hand in mine.

We continued our little circle.

Luke leaned down slightly, his breath dancing over my face and neck. I took in a shaky breath. He started to sing the song softly in my ear. My throat clocked up and more tears streamed down my face. It was horribly bitter sweet but I'd take bitter sweet over nothing any day.

When the part in the song came, where there was no singing—it was that instrumental break—Luke spun me around a couple of times. When it ended, I put my arms around his neck and he put his arms around my waist and we went back to our slow, little circle. He rested my forehead against mine.

As the song started to end, I had a terrifying feeling that so would this dream.

"_We're so close to reaching that famous happy end_," the guy sang, "_Almost believing this was not pretend_." More tears started to gush from my eyes. Luke reached up to wipe them away just as his figure became translucent like the ghost figures surrounding us. My heart dropped to the floor. "_Let's go on dreaming for we know we are_," Luke looked at me with sad eyes that glittered with tears as his figure actually flickered. "_So close._" I reached up to caress his face; he put his hand over mine. "_So close._" His form was almost completely gone. All I saw was an outline of him. "_And still so far_." With those last lyrics, Luke leaned down to press his lips against mine. It was like a summer breeze blowing across my lips and it lasted about two seconds.

When I opened my eyes again he was gone and I was standing in the middle of the big ballroom with floating, dancing, happy people surrounding me, feeling that I had just lost Luke all over again.

I sunk to the floor, wrapping my arms securely around my chest as I felt my heart shatter into pieces. I let out a sob, curling into a small ball, hoping, praying, _wishing_ that I would never wake up.

* * *

><p>Too bad I did.<p>

Too bad I wasn't only crying in my dream I was also crying in real life.

Too bad the burning in my chest didn't go away when I did wake.

I was sitting where I had been a few minutes ago. At the campfire with other half-bloods. I was sitting with one leg sticking out, one leg bent supporting my arm, which was resting on my knee. My head had been bowed, thankfully, so I don't think anyone knew I was crying. Until I lifted my head of course.

One of the half-bloods across the fire squinted his eyes at me.

"Are you crying?" he asked in an unbelieving, almost disgusted tone.

I glared at him. "You got a problem with that?" I snarled. Apparently he'd seen me take down that mercenary and decided that he, in fact, didn't have a problem with me crying and didn't want to be beaten up by a girl so he dropped it.

"Whatever." he mumbled.

"Good choice."

**Sorry for the wait. I wanted to meet my chapter quota, but it's becoming apparent I'm not going to, so I'll just post with this much. I hope it was good!**** I'll post when I can.**

**.happiness.**

**~ See you at Camp Half-Blood!**


	6. Six

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson**

**A/N: I know it's been forever, but I kind of lost my muse... also I had three AP classes and needed to focus on those more than my fanfiction. But I'm back because the AP tests were last week.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

_**το τέλος είναι εδώ  
><strong>_—  
>The End is Near<p>

We were situated at the United Nations building now. Kronos's army had advanced so much farther, considering where we were before: the backwoods of New Jersey. Not exactly close to Manhattan or the Empire State Building. Now, though, now we'd advanced to about a mile away from the Empire State Building. Even so, I think Kronos had planned on taking Mount Olympus today and he was peeved because he hadn't… that or the fact that he was so close, but the centaurs had come in at the last minute and totally pushed his forces back.

He was swinging his scythe angrily; the horrible blade cutting through the air sharply and so fast it was a blur. I stood next to Ethan and Prometheus. Ethan wouldn't stop fidgeting with his armor, while Prometheus stood as still as a statue holding his hands behind his back. I was just standing, shifting from foot to foot with my arms crossed.

We all stood out of the way of Kronos's scythe.

"I hate this place," Kronos snarled. "_United Nations._" he spat. "As if mankind could ever unite. Remind me to tear this building down after we destroy Olympus."

"Yes, lord." Prometheus said an edge to his voice. I looked over at him to see him smiling. One of my eyebrows rose and I turned to look back at Kronos just as Prometheus continued, "Shall we tear down the stables in Central Park too? I know how much horses can annoy you." He was _so_ enjoying seeing Kronos act like this.

"Don't mock me, Prometheus!" Kronos turned to glare at the other Titan with those penetrating golden eyes, but his scythe didn't stop swinging. "Those cursed centaurs will be sorry they interfered. I will feed them to the hellhounds, starting with that son of mine—that weakling Chiron."

Prometheus seemed undisturbed by Kronos's anger. He shrugged and said, "That weakling destroyed an entire legion of telkhines with his arrows." he helpfully pointed out.

Kronos's scythe lashed out, slicing a flagpole clean in half, the flag of Brazil collapsing in the army and squashing one of the _dracaena_. Beside me Ethan jumped, slightly stumbling into me. I shoved him away in annoyance, and he hit Prometheus who glared down at Ethan. He hastily pulled away and glowered at me with his one eye, which was surprisingly powerful. I glowered back with narrowed eyes.

"We will destroy them!" Kronos growled bringing our attention back to him. "It is time to unleash the drakon. Nakamura, you will do this." His gold eyes zeroed in on him.

"Y-yes, lord. At sunset?" he stuttered.

"No," Kronos's scythe stopped abruptly. "Immediately. The defenders of Olympus are badly wounded. They will not expect a quick attack. Besides, we know this drakon they cannot beat." No doubt, thanks to the spy.

Ethan's dark eyebrows furrowed slightly as he looked at Kronos. "My lord?" he asked, puzzled.

"Never you mind, Nakamura. Just do my bidding. I want Olympus in ruins by the time Typhon reaches New York. We will break the gods utterly!"

I heard Ethan swallow next to me. "But, my lord," he said. "Your regeneration."

Kronos pointed his scythe at the demigod next to me. "Does it seem," Kronos hissed his eyes glowing, "that I _need_ to regenerate?" I looked over at Ethan and realized he was totally frozen, Kronos had just frozen him in time… which kind of made the question seem a little unnecessary.

Kronos slowly lowered his scythe and snapped his fingers. Beside me Ethan collapsed, an automatic response to reach for something. Unfortunately that something had to be me. Not ready for this, he almost pulled me down with him. Almost. I quickly jerked my arm out of his grasp, letting him the hit the ground hard, and straightening up, readjusting the sword at my side, glaring coldly down at him.

"Soon," Kronos growled, "this form will be unnecessary. I will not rest with victory so close. Now, go!"

Ethan scrambled away, barely able to get to his feet for a few moments.

"This is dangerous, my lord," Prometheus spoke, sounding more grim than he had a second ago. "Do not be hasty."

"Hasty? After festering for three thousand years in the depths of Tartarus, you call me hasty? I will slice Percy Jackson into a thousand pieces."

"Thrice you've fought him," Prometheus stated using a word I'd never heard many people use before. "And yet you've always said it is beneath the dignity of a Titan to fight a mere mortal. I wonder if your mortal host is influencing you, weakening your judgment."

This was certainly news to me. Kronos just didn't seem like a guy who would yield to anyone just because it was "beneath his dignity"… then again I haven't known Kronos nearly as long as Prometheus has, so who was I to judge.

Kronos turned his eyes on his fellow Titan. "You call me weak?" His voice was low and contained making him seem all the more angry.

I looked over at Prometheus who's eyes widened, just registering what he'd just said. "No, my lord. I only meant—" he started.

"Are your loyalties divided?" Kronos asked in that scarily quiet voice. "Perhaps you miss your old friends, the gods. Would you like to join them?"

I looked back at Prometheus who looked paler. For some reason this made me want to laugh.

"I misspoke, my lord." He was practically stumbling over his words. "Your orders will be carried out." He spun around toward the armies and shouted, "_Prepare for battle!_"

I took a step toward Prometheus. "Nice save." I muttered under my breath. He looked down on me with a sardonic smile and an eye roll.

I stifled my snicker and ignored the pounding of my heart. I hated fighting, especially people I knew. I was always questioning what I was doing here. What I was doing, turning against the very people I'd lived with for what felt like my whole life. What was the point of all of this? Then I'd look over at Kronos, in the body of Luke and remember. I know, it was incredibly selfish of me, but for once in my life I felt like I could afford to be selfish. I mean, I was going to die anyway, why not go out with a bang?

Afterward was a blur of fighting and slashing and stabbing, you know the works…. I had to keep reminding myself to put aside all emotions, as horrible as that sounds. I remember the darkon's horrible wails, shattering the windows within a mile of where it was, at least. I remember battling forward, getting pushed back—and, I hate to admit it, but the _dracaena_ and their wall of shields was impressive… you know, for monsters that would've loved to kill me with the more horrible way not even a week ago.

But Percy's regime wasn't holding up very well. He'd lost a lot of people, and Kronos's army was still standing strong. It amazed me at first that he had so many pawns at his disposal, then I realized that most of his army were monsters and monsters were in a surplus supply right now.

I don't quite remember what happened, but it was like a fast-forward through time and suddenly Kronos's army was advancing hard and fast; the barrier of Percy's army broken and just barely able to hold on any longer. One moment I'm struggling to push forward and the next I'm suddenly standing next to the _dracaena_ queen, Kronos next to her and Ethan Nakamura next to him. Chiron stood a few feet in front of us—mainly Kronos—with an arrow notched in his bow, aimed right between his father's eyes.

Around us, or rather around the Empire State Building, was the army, not letting anything, or anyone in or out. There were also two Hyperboreans flanking the four of us nearest the entrance.

It was an odd feeling because I don't quite remember how we had gotten to this point at all.

I saw movement out of the corner of my eyes and noticed Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover exit one of the doors of the building. They stopped short at the scene before them. Annabeth murmured something under her breath but I was too far away to hear, however, her eyes were on Chiron, wide with concern.

I could tell when Kronos spotted Percy as well, because the air around the small group seemed to freeze, and let me tell you, it's not a very pleasant feeling at all. It felt like something was pressing down on my chest, like I could barely take a full breath in. I looked over and to see Kronos's blazing golden eyes turn back to Chiron.

"Step aside, little son." he ordered not caring to mask or contain the contempt in his voice. Even during a tense moment like this, it was weird to see a 23-year-old, especially a 23-year-old I knew and loved, call Chiron his son.

"I'm afraid not." Chiron replied his voice steely and cold, his eyes determined.

More movement out of the corner of my eyes; I looked over to see the four near the entrance of the building struggling, trying to lift their feet, but it wasn't doing them much good. Obviously it had to have Kronos affecting them.

"Chiron!" Annabeth's voice called. "Look out!"

Next to me the _dracaena_ queen lunged forward at Chiron, apparently not patient enough to wait, but Chiron was ready for this. He let his arrow fly right between her eyes. She disintegrated as soon as the arrow pierced her head, her armor clattering to the ground at my feet. I flinched and looked up.

Bit mistake. I met Chiron's eyes, they were sad and disappointed. I tried not to let this affect me. I was going to the Fields of Punishment and I knew it, might as well do it thoroughly. This only lasted a millisecond; there much bigger matters at hand. Chiron looked back at Kronos reaching for another arrow but came up empty handed. Throwing his bow aside, he pulled out his sword.

Kronos chuckled in amusement and took a step forward. Chiron's horse-half shifted back nervously, his tail flicking back-and-forth, but Chiron held his ground.

"You're a teacher," Kronos spat. "Not a hero."

"Luke was a hero," Chiron responded bravely. "He was a good one, until _you_ corrupted him."

"_Fool!_" Kronos snapped, his voice shaking the very ground beneath my feet. "You filled his head with empty promises. You said the gods cared about me!"

I started when he said "me."

It had to be Luke. It just had to be. More hope started to form inside and my heart pounded in response to this. I shifted from foot to foot and tried to keep where I was.

Chiron didn't fail to notice this either. "Me," he said. "You said _me_."

Kronos was stunned into silence for a moment and Chiron capitalized on this moment by feinting quickly followed by a strike to the face. But this was Kronos, a Titan, in Luke's body who could access Luke's skill. He easily knocked Chiron's blade away and barked, "_Back!_"

A stunning white light exploded between Kronos and Chiron, who was thrown into the side of the building with so much force that the wall crumbled like he'd hit a rotting wall of wood and fell on top of Chiron, making a rubble tomb.

"No!" Annabeth's cry broke through the menacing laughter of the Titan's army as her, Percy, Thalia, and Grover ran forward to the pile of wall that used to be apart of the building. There was a moment as Percy and Thalia pulled at the bricks in vain, before Annabeth spun around, her gray eyes alight with the fire of fury and hatred. "_You!_" she shrieked looking straight at Kronos who was smiling smugly, admiring the work he'd done. "To think that I... that I thought—" Her words faltered but she pulled out her knife.

"Annabeth, don't." Percy warned grasping her arm which she quickly shook off.

When Annabeth charged Kronos's smile dropped and he stood there as she plunged her blade right between his armor straps, near his collar bone. But her blade bounced off harmlessly. Annabeth doubled over and clutched at her arm, her face a mask of pain. Percy quickly pulled her back just as Kronos's scythe sliced right where she'd been standing seconds ago.

"I _hate_ you!" she shrieked fighting against Percy, tears streaming down her face.

"I have to fight him." Percy told her.

"It's my fight too, Percy!" she yelled back.

Kronos laughed beside me, making me jump.

"So much spirit. I can see why Luke wanted to spare you. Unfortunately, that won't be possible."

A chill went down my spine at his words. What was the reason he still kept me alive. He could've easily disposed of me when I'd first met with him and we talked about that fateful day in Colorado when I met with Apollo. I mean I realize that if I hadn't kept trying to convince Luke to stop letting Kronos control we might not be here today, but that was a big might. Besides, it was partly because of Kronos as well because he had to do more convincing to counter my arguments. So I honestly didn't see why he was still keeping me around.

I would've liked to think that it was because Luke was having some kind of influence on Kronos, like Prometheus was saying earlier, but what was much more reasonable, something that made more sense was that he had some ulterior motive that I had an unwilling part in.

The howling of what sounded like a hellhound broke me out of my thoughts and I jumped a mile, my heart pounding in my chest, the blood roaring in my ears.

"Mrs. O'Leary?" Percy called cautiously hopeful.

Around us the Titan arm shifted uncomfortably and you could just feel the change in the air. Then, just like the Red Sea, Kronos's army started to part, making a perfect path, too perfect, it had to be someone affecting where they stood.

When the dust cleared—so to speak—standing about a black away was the biggest hellhound I'd ever seen in my entire life and a small figure standing next to it sporting all black armor.

"Nico?" Percy called again.

The hellhound, Mrs. O'Leary howled again and bounded toward Percy, totally ignoring the evil glares and growls coming from the surrounding audience. Nico followed Mrs. O'Leary, but less enthusiastically. The army fell back, like he was a disease or something... but I did know that he was the son of Hades, so that probably made a difference too. I guess even monsters were afraid of death.

"Got your message. Is it too late to join the party?" Nico asked through is skull-shaped helmet.

"Son of Hades." Kronos spat distastefully. "Do you love death so much you wish to experience it?"

"Your death," Nico responded bravely, without a waver in his voice, "would be great for me."

"I'm immortal, you fool! I have escaped Tartarus. You have no business here, and no chance to live."

Nico drew his sword, a wicked long, three foot, black thing, that looked razor sharp. "I don't agree." For such a young kid he had guts, I had to hand it to him. Just then, the ground rumbled like there was an earthquake. Cracks started appearing in the road, sidewalks, and even the sides of buildings. Out of these cracks skeletal hands grasped at the air and clawed their way up out of the ground and into the living world. I'll admit it, it scared me to no end. The dead had entered the living and there were thousands of them.

Even the monsters of Kronos's army started to fall back along with the mercenaries and turned half-bloods. But Kronos wouldn't have any of it.

"_Hold your ground!_" he barked. "The dead are no match for us."

The sky above turned almost pitch black and the air became deathly cold. The shadows seemed to become mass. A war horn sliced through the air—making me jump yet again—as the dead soldiers started to form up ranks with their guns and swords and spears: An army of the dead. Following the sound of the horn was an large, imposing chariot roared down Fifth Avenue and came to a stop right next to Nico. Riding behind him were Demeter and Persephone.

The horses that led the chariot couldn't even be called horses, they were just like black masses shaped like horses. The chariot was something that suited the Lord of the Dead well, inlaid with obsidian and gold, decorated with scenes of painful deaths, of course. And standing in the chariot, holding the reins was Hades himself, wearing black armor, with a cloak as red and bright as blood as it hit air. Atop his head was his helm of darkness: a crown that had an aura that made me want to run away screaming. It also changed shape, but I wasn't paying very attention to the shapes it was taking because when I looked at it all my worst nightmares seemed to come alive. I fought the urge to run the in other direction, away from all this.

Hades smiled coldly. "Hello, Father." he greeted. "You're looking... young." That was for sure.

"Hades," Kronos snarled through his teeth. "I hope you and the ladies have come to pledge your allegiance."

"I'm afraid not." Hades sighed. "My son here convinced me that perhaps I should prioritize my list of enemies." He shot a look at Percy. "As much as I dislike a certain _upstart_ demigods, it would not do for Olympus to fall. I would miss bickering with my siblings. And if there is one thing we agree on—it is that you were a _terrible_ father."

"True," muttered Demeter. "No appreciation of agriculture." I was surprised that she'd make a comment like that, but then again she was goddess, she couldn't technically die.

"Mother!" Persephone objected.

Hades drew his sword, a double-edged blade that was etched with silver, probably tired of all this idle banter. "Now fight me! For today the House of Hades will be called the saviors of Olympus."

"I don't have time for this," Kronos growled. Immediately after he slammed his scythe against the ground, a crack spreading in both directions, circling the Empire State Building. Along the fissure line a forcefield shimmered separating Kronos, myself, Nakamura, and Percy and his friends from practically everything else, which comprised of both of the armies currently surrounding the Empire State Building.

There was some talking coming from Percy and his friends but I wasn't paying any attention. I was looking beyond the barrier as all the the mortals started to wake up. Cars roared to life, people stirred from their sleeping positions looking, wide-eyed and dazed around at the monsters and zombies around them.

Another moment passed before Hades charged at the wall, but the forcefield was _very_ strong. His chariot simply crashed into it, like a car would crashing into a solid concrete wall, and overturned. Cursing Hades stood up and blasted the wall with his black energy, but the barrier still held.

"_Attack!_" he ordered.

I watched, mouth slightly ajar as the streets exploded with war. The mortals shrieked and screamed and ran for cover while monsters, zombies, mercenaries, and demigods alike battled the enemy.

"Nakamura, Victoria," Kronos said, breaking me out of my trance and trying not to let him see my irritated look from him calling me by Victoria. "Attend me. Giants—deal with them." He pointed to Percy and his friends before entering the lobby of the Empire State Building, Ethan and myself following quickly.

**Also, I got this amazing review from an anonymous reviewer named 13 Redvines, and I thank you, whoever you are, for the awesome review. I hope I haven't kept you, or any of my readers, waiting too long. You know school. Also, I apologize if my Greek is wrong, but I used Google Translate (I'm totally going to learn Greek now).**

**I _will most definitely_ be posting the next—and possibly last—chapter sometime next week. All I can say is: Brace yourself.**

**thank-you-for-everything**

**~ See you at Camp Half-Blood!**


	7. Seven

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson**

**A/N: Okay, like I promised, here I am. And I totally lied about the last chapter thing... but I'm for sure that the next chapter _will_ be the last.**

**Still, I say: Brace yourselves.**

_**κα όπλα  
><strong>_—  
>21 Guns<p>

Kronos wasted no time getting into the elevators—since that was the only way he could get to Mount Olympus in his mortal body—just barely giving Ethan and I enough time to jump in, next to him before the doors closed. The ride up was weird; I couldn't tell you it was awkward just because nothing felt awkward anymore at such a time as this. The music played and all was silent, except for maybe my heart, which was beating at 100 miles per hour trying to burst out of my ribcage.

Then the elevator stopped, did that weird, shift-down-then-up thing and the doors opened. Kronos was probably half-way up the stone steps that led to Mount Olympus before the doors opened fully. Ethan and I were running just to catch up to him. And by the time we reached the mountain he'd already started taking out the small regime they'd formed to stop him, as well as making sure that almost anything up here was burned to the ground. It was a horrible scene to watch, even after everything I'd been through.

His scythe flew around slicing and cutting, Kronos not even caring. Of course, this was Kronos, but it was still hard to watch. I'm kind of surprised I'd even made it this far... I mean, I thought I'd seen everything, but it was clear right now that this was only just the tip of the ice berg of what was to come if Kronos did destroy the gods's thrones.

Ethan and I followed Kronos as he made his way up the mountain and to the throne room, destroying everything in his path, like a hurricane or a tornado. Sometimes Ethan would protect his master, even though he really didn't need it, and sometimes we'd both have to run at full speed just to keep up with him. There was one point where all I remember is seeing a wood nymph with a weapon ready to sneak-attack Kronos who was too preoccupied with blowing up houses to notice and Ethan was currently fighting off a satyr.

I didn't exactly think, I just did. All that was running through my head was to not protect Kronos, but Luke. That's all I really saw then as I unsheathed my sword and blocked her thrust before quickly disarming her. I held the sword to her throat, but I couldn't get myself to actually hurt her.

I was still human. I still had a heart. As much as you'd like to think I didn't, I still did. I was only doing this to save Luke. I know it's not much of an excuse but if you loved someone as much as I did Luke, I think that you'd do anything to save them, too, wouldn't you?

Kronos must've stopped enough to notice the small hesitation. The air seemed to freeze whenever he stood near me. I couldn't see him, but I knew he was standing just behind me and a little to my left.

"Well, go ahead," he hissed. "Just do it, Victoria. I know you're not that incompetent." He egged me on. I gripped the hilt of my sword and gritted my teeth. The muscles in my arm tensed but I just couldn't get myself to do it. I _couldn't_. It just wasn't right.

"I can't." I sighed dropping my sword, my eyes locked with the wood nymphs. Kronos shoved me aside roughly, raising his scythe. I looked away and squeezed my eyes shut, wishing that it'd never come to this. Wishing for happier times. Suddenly his hand, cutting and cold gripped my arm like a steel vice. I gasped, my eyes snapping open.

Kronos spun me around, bringing the blade of his scythe just behind my neck. Its aura, its energy, the power it held was almost too much. I managed to stay on my feet and awake, but that was only because Kronos's burning golden eyes were locked onto mine, searing through my skull.

I think I may have stopped breathing and I couldn't move _at all_.

When he spoke it was like nails on a chalkboard; his voice raked my eardrums.

"You're _weak_." he snarled his eyes glowing. "Such a pity. You would've been a great asset to the new age." He paused. "But there is no use for you now." My heart jumped as my brain registered what that meant: He was going to kill me now. The blade of his scythe came closer to my neck, sucking any and all warmth from my body and I thought that this was it, here and now. He was going to slice right through me like a warm knife through butter and that'd be the end of that.

I thought about the three Fates, the cutting of my string, but most of all my not being able to safe Luke. That hurt.

Suddenly, though, he pulled away, scythe and all, and pushed me back. I stumbled back, gasping, before gaining my bearings again.

Kronos smiled coldly. "It's been sweet, Victoria. It really has." he said before raising his hand. Some kind of invisible wall hit me and I went flying back, like no one's business. The sky, the stars flew past my eyes and then my back hit ground, knocking all the air from my lungs, but it didn't end there. The energy seemed to bounce right back into my body and I was lifted off the ground, feet first right over the side of the mountain.

I had just enough of a brain to grab a hold of the edge before I fell completely into nothingness. My hands and fingers scream in pain but I was too busy trying to get air back into my lungs to notice, or care. I gasped in relief when my lungs finally opened up and air rushed into them. The fog clouding my brain cleared up and that's when I fully understood where I was.

I looked down and saw only the city lights flashing and twinkling like stars. I heard nothing of the war probably going on down below, but could hear Kronos as he continued his way up to the throne room of the gods. I hadn't died, not yet, and that was good. My heart swelled when I registered that I could still save Luke. I was not going to die... not yet anyway.

I tried pulling myself up but the armor I was wearing was too heavy and I just wasn't strong enough. Digging my hand into the dirt I let go with the other and started unclasping the straps of my armor to get it off and make it easier to lift myself back up. I quickly pulled off my helmet and let it fall away before finishing on the straps of my armor. Just as I thought my arm was ready to give out my breastplate fell away and I grasped at the edge with my other hand and hauled myself up onto solid ground.

For a moment I lay there, breathing hard, my arms shaking, my heart fluttering behind my ribcage. I was in such a state of shock that it wasn't until I heard Grover's voice yell, "Jump!" did I realize that they were here and coming up to stop Kronos.

I sat up and looked over to where the elevator was and saw the Grover, Annabeth, Percy, and Thalia were stepping out onto the floating stones that led to the mountain. My eyes locked with Percy's for a moment before I was up on my feet and running up the pathway to the throne room.

"Brick by brick! That was my promise. Tear it down _brick by brick!_" Kronos roared, although I remember Luke telling me that at some point in time, so I couldn't tell if this was Kronos or Luke. Just as he said this something exploded, but I didn't look to see what it was. I kept running. A few moments later there was another explosion, but again, I didn't pause or stop to see what was happened. I just kept running.

Then, finally—_finally—_I arrived at the doors... well more like piles of scrap metal now. Kronos had totally blasted them to bits, like they were nothing. I struggled to climb over a small mountain of shrapnel, which was a lot harder considering I'd used all my energy just getting myself up back onto the mountain.

Kronos was there standing in the middle of the throne room, arms spread, taking it all in. Thousands upon thousands of years and here he was again, almost back on top, almost back to ruling the world again. His laughter echoed around the large throne room, bouncing back and forth in a disorienting way.

I couldn't help myself, I was losing it. Maybe it was because of the lack of sleep, or maybe because I was running on pure adrenaline, or maybe it was because I knew that my life would come to an end very, _very_ soon... but whatever the case when my feet hit the floor in the throne room I couldn't stop myself from yelling, "Luke!"

Kronos stopped laughing abruptly and turned, his golden eyes locking onto me.

He smiled.

"Well, well, well, would you look at that. You're stronger than I've given you credit for, Victoria. I thought you'd just be a spot on a New York sidewalk by now." he commented.

I completely ignored this. "Luke, I know you're in there." I gasped. "You have to listen to me!" Tears formed in my eyes without my permission.

Kronos's smiled faded and his eyes flashed, hardening into solid gold. "Luke is gone. His soul has been crushed." he hissed, deadly quiet. He gripped his scythe.

My hands fisted, I took a step forward, and shook my head. "No! That's _not_ true!" I screamed trying as hard as I could to not let my tears fall. "I _know_ he's still in there. Fight him, Luke! Fight him! I saw it, that day of the meeting with Prometheus and Percy."

I don't quite remember what happened after that, but what I do remember pain radiating through my body as I was slammed into my father, Apollo's, throne. The cry of agony escaping my lips. Falling forward, onto the marble floors. Struggling to push myself up onto my feet again. Bracing myself against Apollo's throne and looking at Kronos, who glared cruelly back.

"Luke," I pleaded. "Please! I know you're in there!" I stumbled forward, toward Kronos, not thinking.

He growled, "You don't know anything. You're pathetic." before backhanding me so hard that I fell to one side and went sliding across the floor. I'm actually surprised he hadn't broken anything with that hit.

Again, though, I couldn't help the whimper that escapes my lips and suddenly I heard Luke's strangled voice ask, "Tori?"

"Luke?" I ask hopefully sitting up and looking at Kronos, but his eyes are gold and he looks even angrier than before. "Luke!" I cry, jumping up and running at Kronos, actually grabbing his arm.

"Unhand me!" Kronos shouts throwing me away and into Apollo's throne yet again, falling over, face down. This time, though I'm unable to get my arms and legs to cooperate. I've used all my energy reserves, and my limbs feel like jell-o. "I should've gotten rid of you when I had the chance." Kronos growled lifted his scythe, and I have just enough of a tiny amount of energy I didn't know I have to roll away as his scythe swings down toward me. Unfortunately, not quickly enough, I feel the blade graze my left side; a shallow cut, but this is _Kronos's scythe_. As soon as the blade makes contact with my skin my whole body explodes into a whole new level of pure agony; torture.

I just want it to end!

I lay on my back, unable to move, unable to even scream I'm in so much pain, my right hand clutching my side. Already I could feel the effects of his scythe. My vision blurred, colors dimmed, I started to forget where I was, _who_ I was, what my name was, why I was here. Some part of me that still seemed to be alive gave me an answer: Luke.

I squeezed my eyes shut and forced my soul to stay within my body.

_My name is Victoria Williams._ I told myself, breathing hard through gritted teeth. _I'm a half-blood. My father is a Apollo, god of the sun. My mother left me out on the streets of New York to die. My foster mother's name is Mrs. Alexander. I'm here for Luke. I'm doing all this for Luke._

With a small gasp my eyes fluttered open again. My vision was a bit clearer, but my head still felt heavy, and my body was still pounding with stabbing, cutting, stinging, shooting pain.

Kronos had been watching me the whole time, probably to make sure that I'd fully died just so there was no chance that Luke would be able to resurface.

"Well," he said coldly. "You look alright. Why don't we fix that, hm?" He brought his scythe down again, next to my neck. I wasn't sure if he was going to slit my throat and cut my head completely off, but if that blade touched me again, there was no doubt I wouldn't make it. I mean, I was barely able to hold on now. The only thing keeping me grounded was that paragraph about me and what I was here, repeating over and over in my head.

Before Kronos could kill me for good, though, Ethan spoke.

"My lord," he warned.

Kronos spun around taking his scythe with him and just barely missing me.

"Shall I destroy you first, Jackson?" Kronos asked. "Is that the choice you will make..." His voice started to fade as my vision did. I squeezed my eyes shut tight again.

_My name is Victoria Williams._ _I'm a half-blood. My father is a Apollo, god of the sun. My mother left me out on the streets of New York to die. My foster mother's name is Mrs. Alexander. I'm here for Luke. I'm doing all this for Luke._

Percy was speaking now: "But I suppose you don't have his skill."

There was a moment of silence and I wasn't sure if I was seeing right, but Kronos's scythe turned into Luke's old blade: ackbiter.

I heard Annabeth gasp. "Percy, the blade..." Her voice faded out as blackness washed over me, more powerful than last time.

_My name is Victoria Williams._ _I'm a half-blood. My father is a Apollo, god of the sun. My mother left me out on the streets of New York to die. My foster mother's name is Mrs. Alexander. I'm here for Luke. I'm doing all this for Luke._

It didn't work like last time though. I stayed in darkness, unable to move, unable to hear anything, unable to resurface. But I just kept repeating that paragraph in my head over and over and over again. I hadn't died, not yet, but I knew I was getting close. That scared me. I swear it almost scared me back into my body. All I could think about was saving Luke... if not saving him, then at least seeing his beautiful blue eyes once more. If I could just tell him how much I loved him once more time I'd let go.

Kronos's cry of pain pushed me out of the murky water for a moment. Breathing heavily I tried to look around to see what was going on. My vision faded in and out from clear to fuzzy. What I managed to register was Kronos, I think, on his knees holding his face. Annabeth was yelling something but I couldn't understand, I couldn't comprehend, my brain was in such a fog. There was also music, it was fast in tempo and how this haunting, sour tune to it. And that's the last thing I remember before sinking back below the surface of the water.

_My name is Victoria Williams._ _I'm a half-blood. My father is a Apollo, god of the sun. My mother left me out on the streets of New York to die. My foster mother's name is Mrs. Alexander. I'm here for Luke. I'm doing all this for Luke._

Once again, something pulled me out of the water for a moment. I looked around, vaguely wondering what I'd missed while I was out. From across the room, over the glowing coals of the hearth I saw what looked to Annabeth being cradled by Grover. Percy was standing in front of his father's throne but looked like he was struggling to move, obviously because of something Kronos was doing was keeping him where he stood. And Kronos was pointing to the hearth now. I'm not quite sure if it was my mind playing tricks on me, or if it was truly happening, but there was a white cloud of smoke forming above the hearth.

In the cloud, almost like some kind of projector, showed the battle that was going on down below with the army of the dead against the army of the titan lord. But this scene didn't last long and it shifted to what looked like a column of pure storm as I slowly sunk back into the dark waters of nothingness.

_My name is Victoria Williams._ _I'm a half-blood. My father is a Apollo, god of the sun. My mother left me out on the streets of New York to die. My foster mother's name is Mrs. Alexander. I'm here for Luke. I'm doing all this for Luke._

"No!" Kronos's voice broke through the barrier. I gasped and my eyes flew open. I felt actually awake this time. I wasn't in some kind of half-dead haze anymore. "_No!_" he cried again. I turned my head to see what was going on. There was the thick white cloud hovering over the hearth—so it hadn't been my imagination—and through it I could see Typhon as well as the other Olympians fighting him.

"_Now, my brethren!_" Poseidon thundered. "_Strike for Olympus!_" Suddenly warriors erupted from the river, riding the waves on giant sharks and dragons and sea horses. It was a whole legion of Cyclopes.

"Tyson!" Percy called from where he stood, still at his father's throne.

I looked harder and did, in fact, see Tyson leading the legion. I watched in stunned amazement as the Cyclopes threw humongous grappling hooks around Typhon, throwing them around his legs and arms, using the tide to circle around him, tangling him. Typhon fought back roaring and pulling at the chains. But it wasn't enough, they began to slowly drag Typhon down.

Poseidon threw he trident into Typhon's throat and ichor spilled out in waterfall taller than any skyscraper and more powerful than Niagara Falls. The trident flew back into Poseidon's hand. Then the other gods started to attack as well, as the crystal of hope of stopping Typhon formed within them. And as they did this, the water slowly rose, surrounding Typhon, slowly and steadily. Between the weight of the chains the power of the gods that was being thrown at him, he started to sink down into the river, thrashing and fighting, but all in vain.

The things head went below the water as seething whirlpool and then all was still. Typhon had been defeated once again.

"_Bah!_" Kronos shrieked slashing through the cloud with his scythe.

"They're on their way," Percy spoke. "You've lost."

"I haven't even started."

Kronos was a blur as he ran at Percy. Grover threw himself between the two, but Kronos tossed him aside without a second thought. The spell on Percy seemed to have broken though, for Percy was ready for Kronos's attack... Well, he managed to dodge Kronos's attack at least, because not even a moment after did Kronos disarm Percy, Percy's sword sliding across the marble floors and falling through a hole that must've formed while I was out.

"_Stop!_" Came Annabeth's voice. Kronos whirled around bringing Backbiter down on Annabeth but stopped just inches from her neck. She'd somehow managed to catch his blade on her dagger hilt. It was shocking and impressive, to have enough strength too hold of a Titan like that. She stepped in closer and their blades crossed.

"Luke," she said through gritted teeth, "I understand now. You have to trust me."

Kronos roared, probably tired of being referred to at Luke. "Luke Castellan is dead! His body will burn away as I assume my true form!" He started to push against Annabeth harder, trying to break his blade away from hers. She held him, but I could see how much effort it was taking her to do this—her arms shook and Backbiter inched closer and closer toward her neck.

"You're mother," Annabeth grunted. "She saw your fate."

"Service to Kronos!" he bellowed. "This is my fate." Then I wasn't quite sure who was talking anymore.

"No!" Annabeth disagreed. Even from where I lay, I could see the tears in her eyes, agleam in the light from the hearth, as dim as it was. "That's not the end, Luke. The prophecy: she saw what you would do. It applies to you!" she tried to explain.

"I will crush you, child!" Kronos roared.

"You won't," Annabeth told him in a strangely calm voice. "You promised. You're holding Kronos back even now."

"_Lies!_" Kronos gave one last push and Annabeth couldn't hold on any longer. She lost her balance and with his free hand, Kronos struck her face and she slid back. He came forward, sword raised.

"Family, Luke." she reminded him. "You promised."

My breath caught and my heart stuttered as I watched Kronos stagger.

"_Promise._" she whispered weakly.

He started gasping like he'd just surfaced from being underwater for much, much longer than you can hold your breath.

"Annabeth..." My heart jumped in my chest when I heard Luke's voice, a voice I hadn't heard for years. I started to struggle to lift myself up, but every single movement of any of my muscles sent searing pain throughout my body. "You're bleeding..." Luke said again. A pang of jealously ran through me, but then I reminded myself that it didn't matter anymore. All that I knew as that I loved Luke and I would give anything for him to be him again and if Annabeth happened to be the one to do that, then so be it.

"My knife." Annabeth said, her voice just barely a whisper. If it hadn't been as quiet as it was right now I wouldn't have been able to hear her. I looked over again, giving up sitting up momentarily. She tried to raise her knife but it fell out of her hand, her arm at an odd angle, even from the vantage point I was looking at it. She looked over at Percy searchingly. "Percy, please..."

Percy came forward and quickly grabbed her knife off the floor before knocking Backbiter out of Luke's hand. It clattered to the floor and spun into the hearth. Luke hadn't seem to notice. Instead he took a step toward Annabeth, but Percy would have none of it. He put himself between Luke and Annabeth.

"Don't touch her," he warned.

Kronos's voice resurfaced. "Jackson..." he growled.

I blinked and rubbed my eyes with the hand that wasn't clamped over the cut Kronos's scythe had given me. I looked at Luke again to make sure. Yes, he _was_ glowing, a gold aura enveloped him.

He gasped again and it was Luke who spoke this time. "He's changing. Help. He's... he's almost ready. He won't need my body anymore. Please—"

Kronos took over again. "_No!_" he cried, turning to search for Backbiter. He lunged toward the coals, pushing away Percy so hard he flew back into Athena's throne right next to Annabeth. Kronos grasped his blade but dropped it almost immediately, his hands an angry red, scorched. The hearth glowed almost white, it'd become so hot.

Luke turned and collapsed, clutching his burned hands. "Please, Percy..." he begged. My heart squeezed painfully.

"Luke." I whispered too quite for him to hear before trying to find strength within me that wasn't there to push myself up. I could feel the tears that had formed when I first confronted Kronos spill down my face. The feeling of the end was suffocating me. I had a horrible feeling that Luke wasn't going to make it out of this alive.

And neither was I.

**Okay, last chapter is next. I'll be posting it this week. Promise.**

**Also my apologies for the atrocious translation... I don't think Goolge Translate is **_**that**_** reliable. And, this chapter is kind of based off the theme of the song "21 Guns".**

**thank-you-for-everything**

**~ See you at Camp Half-Blood!**


	8. Eight

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson**

**A/N: Okay, like I promised, here I am. Although, I don't know that that's particularly a good thing considering how sad this last chapter is going to be... ** Oh, and by the way this chapter is based off of Taylor Swift's song "Innocent". It fits amazingly well with the situation that Luke's gone through.****

**And for the last time, I say: Brace yourselves.**

_**αθώος  
><strong>_—  
>Innocent<p>

I managed to roll over onto my stomach again and push myself to my knees. I looked back over toward Percy and Luke to see what was happening. Percy had gotten to his feet and was standing in front of Luke with Annabeth's dagger in his hand. His hand gripped the hilt and the muscles in his arm tensed and rippled like he was going to strike out at Luke.

Luke seemed to know this as well.

"You can't..." he choked, "can't do it yourself. He'll break my control. He'll defend himself. Only my hand. I know where. I can... can keep him controlled."

Percy stared down at Luke. If my eyes weren't decieving me he was really starting to glow and even smoke. If Percy didn't act, the war would be over, its victor: Kronos, the Titans.

I watched frozen in horror as Percy raised the dagger like he was going to strike at Luke but he hesistated and looked over toward Annabeth who was now being held by Grover.

"Please," Luke pleaded. "No time."

Another moment of indecision and finally Percy lowered his raised hand, holding the dagger out for Luke to take.

Grover yelped. "Percy?" he asked. "Are you... um..." Grover trailed off, probably not wanting to offend Percy.

Percy didn't answer though as Luke grasped the hilt of the dagger with one hand. With the other he unlatched the side straps of his armor, exposing a small bit of skin just under his left arm. I pushed myself to my feet, just enough energy surigng through me to keep me up, but my legs were still weak, my knees bent unable to hold all the weight I was trying to put on them.

More tears streamed down my face as Luke, with some difficulty, stabbed himself. His cry seemed to slice right through me. It was the most painful thing I'd ever felt hit me. I'll say it, it was even more painful than Kronos's sycthe cutting my side. I felt as if I'd lost the fight.

But I couldn't think about this too much because the throne room shook, knocking me off my feet. A blinding light glowed throughout the room and heat as hot as a lightning bolt hit me. As it slowly faded, I started to struggle to my feet again.

There was no sound in the throne room at all as I leaned heavily against Apollo's throne to keep my balance. My head spun and my vision blurred, but I fought to keep awake, to keep control. Luke was still hanging onto a thread, I could feel it. He hadn't died yet.

Slowly... slowly I made my way across the throne room, past the hearth and to the body of Luke, that was now sprawaled out on the floor, beside the hearth, surrounded by a ring of black ash. I held back a sob when I saw that state he was in. His whole left side was bloody and his breathing was a deep rattle.

But his eyes... oh, his eyes. They were his beautiful wintery blue. The blue that I missed so much. My heart ached just looking at them.

"Good... blade," he spoke, breaking the dead silence.

I shuffled closer to him just as Percy knelt next to him and Grover helped Annabeth over to his left side as well. I sunk down next to Luke's right side. Silent tears slid down my face, but I made no noise. I'm sure they noticed me, but if they did they said nothing.

Luke looked at Annabeth who also had tears in her eyes.

"You knew." he whispered. "I almost killed you, but you knew..."

"Shh." Annabeth's voice trembled. "You were a hero at the end, Luke. You'll go to Elysium."

Luke shook his head weakly. "Think... rebirth. Try for three times. Isles of the Blest."

I couldn't help but smile at that. That was Luke.

Annbeth sniffled. "You always pushed yourself too hard." she said on the same page as I was.

He held up his ruined hand. Annabeth reached out and touched his fingertips. Another pang of jealously hit me.

"Did you..." Luke stopped and coughed, his lips glistening a wicked red. "Did you love me?"

I held me breath.

Annabeth wiped her tears from her face. "There was a time I thought... well, I thought..." She broke off and looked over at Percy. There a long pause as they gazed at each other. "You were like a brother to me, Luke," she finally spoke softly. "But I didn't love you."

Luke nodded as if expecting that before wincing in pain. I winced at seeing him in pain. At seeing him like this. At seeing him on his death bed.

"We can get ambrosia," Grover said. "We can—"

"Grover," Luke interrupted quitely, swallowing hard. "You're the bravest satyr I ever knew. But, no. There's not healing..." He coughed agian and my stomach tightened.

Suddenly his blue eyes were on me. Tears filled my eyes blurring my vision and I quickly blinked them away, not wanting to miss anything.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, my voice shaking. "I'm so sorry." I sobbed, the dam completely breaking. "It's all my fault! If I had just fought harder to convince you—"

Luke's hand gripped the hand that wasn't clutching my left side, so my left hand, making me break off midsentence. His skin was uncomfortably hot; it felt like it was burning my own hand, but I didn't let go.

I looked at him expectantly, my throat hurting from the sobs that I was holding back to hear what he had to say to me.

But he didn't say anything to me. Instead he let go of my hand and drew a small, rough circle in the palm of my hand bringing me back to when I'd first arrived at Camp Half-Blood, to years ago, to happier times...

* * *

><p>I'd just arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I hadn't known that Apollo was my father yet or that I had a fraternal brother... and already I had fallen head-over-heels for Luke. Of course, Luke didn't know this. I couldn't get myself to tell him (besides, I'd just met him anyway). I honestly didn't think he'd want someone like me anyway. Besides the Aphordite girls were so much prettier than I and they always swooned whenver Luke walked by.<p>

I could see him with one of them more than I could see him with myself... no matter how much I loved him.

That's sad isn't it.

Well, whatever the case, because I'd had this crush on Luke ever since I first arrived at camp, it was to expected of the Aphordite girls to know that love was blossoming in my heart for Luke. And you can probably guess after months and months of hyming and ha-ing around they'd find someway to get Luke to notice me—because up until this point I'd only ever trained with him and the rest of the Hermes cabin in swordsmanship. At this time I hadn't been as good as I was, so of course Luke wouldn't take notice of me.

Regretably I'd been doodling during art (because that was probably the only time I could doodle). I'd have some parchment and a pen and end up drawing T + L FOREVER in a circle. (Yeah, a circle, not a heart—I'll get to that in a moment.) Obviously the T stood for Tori, me, and the L stood for Luke.

So, anway, I'd start daydreaming during the arts and crafts period of my day and unconsciously doodle this on my paper, if I had paper in front of me. Then Travis _and_ Conner come up to me (I think that the Aphordite kids payed them off some way to get them to do this... don't know why they didn't just do it themselves, though) and you know there's trouble when they both approach you, acting too nonchalant.

Because they startled me, it's appropriate that I freak out and grab the paper and hold it to my chest tightly, blushing like mad and hoping they hadn't seen anything incriminating.

"What's that you got there, huh?" Travis asks, pointing to the paper I'm gripping.

I try to calm myself and get my face back to a normal color. "It-it's n-nothing." I stutter still trying to get over the shock and embarrassment.

Connor raises an eyebrow. "I don't know..." he sings. "It looks like something to me." They exchanged a look and suddenly one is poking me, making me take a hand away from the paper while the other rips it from my other hand. And just like that, they're both off, running away from me at top speed.

It takes me a moment to realize what they've done, it was so quick, but when I do I'm screaming and sprinting after them all throughout camp running around wood nymphs, and satyrs, and camp councilers, and other campers screaming the same thing over and over again: "Guys, come on! Give it back to me! It's mine!"

Of course they don't and of course they have to run through all of camp—thank the gods not the forest, though—before going down to the arena where Luke happens to be holding a training session with the Ares cabin.

I'm too scared and tired by now to follow them down. All I can do is watch them run over to Luke and slap the paper against his chest before running off again. This is when I go hide in the Hermes and cabin and hope beyond hope that it doesn't mean anything to Luke and that he'll forget about it, and that he won't notice me like he has been doing for the past couple of months.

The rest of the day goes by and Luke doesn't approach me once, so I think that he's forgot all about it and that he's used to girls drawing their initials together... except maybe in a heart and not a circle, like I've done. So, of course, he'll just pass it off as another girl with a crush.

The next day Luke calls down the Hermes cabin for another training session in the arena. Today he decides that he wants me as a sparring partner. I totally freak out over this fact that I totally forget that he probably saw that embarrassing piece of paper yesterday, thinking that the whole things has just blown over. That he's forgoten all about yesterday.

We start sparring per usual and then all of a sudden, out of blue it comes.

"So, Tori," Luke says, as he thrusts his sword forward.

"So, what?" I reply teasingly deflecting his attack and making my own move.

"Conner and Travis gave me something yesterday"—before he finishes ice water runs through my veins, and my mouth goes dry—"and I wanted to talk to you about that." he finishes swinging his sword at me.

And I'm so shocked its all I can do to narrowly avoid getting sliced in half. Unfortunately I narrowly avoid getting sliced in half right into someone else's blade. Thankfully I _didn't_ get slice in half. On the flip side of this, fact the sword being a sword slices through my left upper forearm like butter, catching some of my humorus on its way out.

I drop my sword, my right hand coming up to try and stem the flow of blood, but already a small pool of blood has formed on the arena floor. My head is light and the world is spinning at the speed of light. My body sways threatening to fall over and take a spill. My breathing is shallow and my heart keeps beating raiply pumping more and more of that vital, thick fluid out of my body.

I've dropped to my knees by now.

"Tori!" Luke's voice calls through the ringing in my ears. "Oh my gods! Are you all right?"

"I'm... fine." I answer in just barely a whisper as I force my legs to stand up, only that makes my vision go black and I hit my knees painfully against the stone floor. "I lied." I mumble not able to hold myself up any longer.

Then suddenly I'm in someone's arms, being held bridal style and they're running. The white of their shirt being eaten by the blood gushing from my arm. I look up in a daze and realize that it's Luke. Luke is carrying me.

His blue eys meet mine for a moment.

"Hold on, Tori." he urges. "Just a moment longer."

I think he keeps talking, but I fade in and out and I don't quite understand what's going on.

When I wake up again, I feel a little bit better. My head is still light, and the lights seem to be swaying back and forth like I'm on a boat, but other than I feel perfectly fine. I blink a couple of times to shake off the haze and gather my bearings. I'm lying in a cot in the camp infirmiry and my left arm, where the sword cut me, is wrapped in gauze. To my right, to my complete surprise and utter shock is...

"Luke." I croak. Everything seems to shine around him, but that could just be the side effects of probably drinking too much nectar and ingesting too much ambrosia or a little bit of both, because I also feel overtly warm as well, like I could spontaneously combust as any moment.

He's still wearing his blood-soaked shirt and in the back of my mind I wonder how long I've been out. Another thought is that there's a lot of blood on his shirt. It looked like he commited a gruesome murder. That scared me. How much blood _had_ I lost?

"Tori," he breaths. That's when I realize he's gripping my hand in both of his. "You're okay. Thank the gods."

I smile. "That was really stupid of you." I say. Then I realize what's come out of my mouth. "Sorry, that's the ambrosia and nectar speaking."

"No, you're absolutely right. I shouldn't have brought something like that up during sword fighting, of all things." Luke agrees.

"Good." I say. "Because I totally made that whole, 'it's the ambrosia-nectar' thing up." I tell him.

Luke chuckles. Then the smile drops slightly and there's a seriousness to the air suddenly.

"So... about the paper Travis and Conner gave to me yesterday..." He trails off waiting for me to continue.

Maybe it _was_ the ambrosia and nectar speaking as I smiled and asked, "Yes?"

"T for Tori and L for Luke, right?" he asks.

I nod. "Mm-hmm."

Luke nods and takes this in. "And why... why in circles? Hearts seem more appropriate, don't you think?"

Still smiling I gently pull my hand out of both of his and reach up to stroke his cheek. This was before he'd gone on his quest. His face was not yet marred by the thick white scar he'd recieve.

"You... you don't mind, do you?" I murmur pulling my hand away slightly.

He looks at me for a long moment and finally decides, that no, it doesn't bother him that I'm stroking his cheek and playing with his bangs.

"It was for my tenth birthday. Misses Alexander, my foster mother, gave me a picture of me and her riding an elephant at this one zoo, in a beautiful, circular, silver frame. And engraved into the fram was the quote: 'If you love someone, put their name in a circle; because hearts can be broken, but circles never end.'"

* * *

><p>After that moment our bond had grown strong and got stronger and stronger as the years past. He told me his secrets, and I mine. We talked to each other. We were there for each other. I don't know exaclty why we hadn't started dating, but all that really mattered was that I was with Luke then. I had someone who understood me and vice versa.<p>

Now, though... now that was how I felt about Luke. My love for him would never end. Even after all that he's done. My love for him was infinite just like the circles surrounding our initials.

Now I knew that his love from me was also infinite.

I blinked and more tears gushed from my eyes as I gazed into his marvelous blue ones.

"For-ev-er." he choked out.

"And ever." I completed in a whisper drawing my own circle in the palm of his hand.

Luke turned his head back toward the three on his left side, to Percy more specifically and lifted his hand to grip Percy's sleeve. "Ethan. Tori. Me. All the unclaimed. Don't let it... Don't let it happen again." His voice became stronger in those last, few vital seconds.

"I won't," Percy said meeting Luke's eyes evenly. "I promise."

Luke nodded and I watched his hand drop and his gorgeous blue eyes slowly fade and become shallow pools.

No fire.

No light.

No life.

My world collapsed. Shattered. Crumbled. Fell to pieces around me.

He was... he was gone.

Luke was dead.

Dead.

What a strange word. It left me feeling hollow inside.

I was nothing without Luke. Luke was all I had left. He was the only one who kept me grounded, leveled. And now he was... gone.

The reality slowly but surely sunk in, as much as I didn't want it to and when it did, I think something inside me snapped.

All I really remember is shrieking and sobbing and crying so hard I thought for sure I'd give myself a heart attack... or something.

Then I remembered the Fates and the cutting of my string and instantly knew what was going to happen. I could just hear them whisper: _It's your turn. It's your turn._

Even if it _wasn't_ my turn I don't think I'd be able to go on living. With Luke gone... I-I just couldn't.

I took a breath and tried to just let go, sink into darkness or float off into the silent waters, but it seemed like when I actually wanted death to take me, they wouldn't. But being here, being on this planet without Luke hurt. _This_ world may have been saved from the wrath of Kronos, but _my_ world was gone. Ashes, blown away into the breeze, never to be seen again. And now it seemed like Hades himself wouldn't even take me. Like they were forcing me to stay alive just so that I could suffer. Like _this_ was my punishment for turning my back on the gods and joining the Titans.

But I wasn't going to let them do this to me. I had control over my own life... or rather, death.

You may not agree with suicide, but Luke was my lifeline. Now that he was gone, I was nothing, floating in space. There was no place for me. It's not like Apollo claiming me now was going to change anything. _After_ everything that had happened. If he claimed me now, it'd just make things worse.

So, holding my tears and sobs back as best I could, I looked around the room trying to find something that would end my life faster. It was the gaping hole near Hephaestus's throne that caught my attention first. I don't quite know why it was there or how it formed, but falling thousands of feet to the ground should most definitely kill me.

With my eyes locked on the hole, I struggled to my feet and limped over toward it. I think Percy might have called my name, but I wasn't listening. All I saw was Manhattan below, its twinkling lights, the cool air blowing up through the hole numbing my face. I take a deep breath and close my eyes before falling forward, but before gravity can even pull me down toward the concrete below, someone slams into me, knocking me to the side.

I shriek and pull away from them, standing up.

"What are you doing?" Percy's shocked sea-green eyes meet mine.

"What does it look like?" I ask him, suddenly angry.

"But... why?" he asks like he can't fathom why in the world I'd _want_ to die.

Tears flood my eyes again and spill over. "Because I have nothing left!" I yell at him. "Luke"—I point to the lifeless body that used to hold the soul of the person I loved—"is gone! He's _dead_! And I..." my voice shrinks. "I have nothing left." My knees decide to buckle then. "I have nothing left." I echo blankly, my words registering in my brain. I sink down, sitting on my legs, looking blankly at the hole in the floor.

"I don't have any friends. My father won't even claim me. My mother and brother have decided to disown me. Mrs. Alexander needed to leave to take care of her sister. All I have—_had_—left is Luke. And now... now he's gone. And I... I have nothing." My voice is a whisper by now. I don't even know if Percy can hear me anymore, let alone if he continued to listen to me.

"But things are going to change." Percy finally spoke, feverishly, sitting down in front of me, catching my eyes. "I promised Luke and I'm promising you. You _will_ see a change." he urged.

I shook my head a few more tears sliding down my face. "After what?" I ask looking at him. "A war? _Thousands_ of innocent lives lost to—to what? Get _one single point_ across?" I ask in a whisper. "If it takes a war to get the gods to notice their children, what will it take for them to change something bigger?" I shook my head again. "You can't teach old dogs new tricks."

Percy just wouldn't listen to me, though. "You still have me," He looked back at Annabeth and Grover who were watching us intently. "Us, as friends. And you'll get a chance to speak with Apollo—"

I shrug. "And _what_? He's going to claim me? What difference is that going to make? It's much, _much_ too late for that."

"Well, not exactly—"

"Talk? We've already talked and he's made his choice." I tell him solomnly. "And so have I." I stand and Percy follows quickly.

"Tori," he says taking my arm, preventing me from jumping, but that wasn't what I was going to do. I gently pull my arm out of his grasp and limp over to Luke's body again. I sink next to him and reach up to close his eyes, my hand continuing the downward movement to the dagger lying at his side. The one he gave to Annabeth. The one he'd used to end the war. The one he'd used that made him a hero.

I gripped the hilt tightly in my hand and before I could change my mind, before anyone could do anything to stop me I plunged the sharp blade, at an angle, into my stomach. The breath hissed through my gritted teeth. Ignoring the sharp, throbbing pain, I swiftly remove the blade from my body. Someone snatches it from my hand, but it's too late. I can feel myself starting to finally float, I can feel my soul being lifted from my mortal shell.

With my breath wheezing in and out I woodenly lay down next to Luke, on my side, with my bending my arm and using it as a sort of makeshift pillow, closing my eyes and waiting for someone to take me.

"Hey, there stranger." a familiar voice speaks.

My eyes snap open and I blink a couple of times before turning my head and looking up. A small smile graces my lips as jade green meets wintery blue.

"Luke."

_Better a broken promise than none at all. ~ Mark Twain_

**Alright-y, there you have it. The last chapter of my alternate ending. It was actually easier than I thought it would be to write this, but that may be because I've been working up to it for probably one or two years now...**

**In any case, I hope you enjoyed (as wrong as that sounds, but you know what I mean) and stay tuned for yet another Percy Jackson story that is currently just a thought that needs a whole lot of developing and fleshing out.**

**thank-you-for-everything**

**~ See you at Camp Half-Blood!**


End file.
